A garden is a beautiful way to add fragrance, intrigue, and fresh flavor to your home. With the right planning, a garden can be easy to maintain and require little attention on a daily basis.
If you’ve never grown herbs before, starting a garden might seem like a challenging undertaking. Here are some helpful tips on how to make your own successful herb garden that requires minimal maintenance time and effort.
Research Your Herbs Before You Plant
Before you buy your herbs and start digging holes in your garden bed, it’s important to research the herbs you’re planning to grow. This will help you to avoid planting highly invasive herbs, that have a short lifespan or are unsuited to your particular growing region.
Several online herb databases can help you identify the right herbs for your growing conditions. These sites are also handy if you’re trying to identify an herb you’ve discovered in the wild and want to know whether or not you can eat it!
Prep Your Herb Garden Bed
Once you’ve decided which herbs you want to plant, you’ll need to prepare your garden bed. First, if your soil isn’t naturally well-drained, you’ll need to amend it with some sand, gravel, or other permeable materials to make sure the water doesn’t pool in your garden bed.
Next, aerate your soil using a garden fork or spade to make it easier for the roots to breathe once they’re planted. Once your soil is amended and aerated, you’re ready to plant your herbs!
Select Your Herbs
Once your garden bed is ready to go and you’ve researched the best herbs to plant, it’s time to start planting! Start with your perennial herbs, like rosemary and sage. These can be planted once and will keep coming back year after year.
If you’re growing annual herbs, like parsley, cilantro, and dill, you’ll need to replant them each year. Once each herb is planted, water it well to get the roots going and help it get established.
Decide on a Gardening Method
There are a variety of ways that you can plant and maintain your garden. First, you can choose to plant your herbs in pots or containers. Containers are great if you don’t have a large space for a garden bed, or if you want to keep your herbs near your kitchen for easy access.
If you plant your herbs in pots, be aware that you’ll need to water them more often. If you do have the space for a garden bed, you can also choose a vertical gardening method. This means growing your herbs up in a trellis or a vertical frame.
Maintain Your Herb Garden
Once your garden is planted and established, it will require very little maintenance. You’ll want to keep an eye on your garden bed and remove any weeds that pop up, but that’s about it!
You can also try to prevent pests and diseases by using organic fertilizers and pesticides. As your herbs begin to grow, you can harvest them as you need them, or you can try to preserve them for later use. Many herbs can be frozen or dried to be used in cooking all year round.