So Many Wonderful Varieties of Herbs
Before I start this blog about herbs and how easy they can be to grow, I want to share some information with you. National Herb Day is Saturday, May 3rd. This day celebrates the importance of plants and herbs, particularly concerning health and education.
The International Herb Association has selected GERMAN CHAMOMILE as the 2025 Herb of the Year. German Chamomile is an annual herb with white daisy-like flowers. These flowers are used to make herbal tea and are used in salads. This herb is non-native and was brought to America during colonial times for its medicinal properties.
Herb gardening has been a strong gardening trend over the past few years. More and more people are realizing how wonderful it is to pick fresh herbs and use them in cooking. I enjoy growing my herbs. Everything I produce now is in containers. I have thyme, oregano, and chives in containers. These hardy, perennial herbs come back year after year. For the summer, I will have a pot of basil, tarragon, and parsley to add to my herb collection. Again, I grow all my herbs in containers. So, you don’t have to have a traditional garden for growing herbs. They all do quite well in containers. And, with large containers, you can create companion planting of different herbs that are compatible.
Whether you choose to grow herbs in the ground or you choose to grow in containers, there are a few tips I want to share with you to be a successful grower:
Six Tips for Successful Herb Gardening
- All herbs need a lot of sunlight.
- Herbs have very few, if any, pest or disease problems.
- Herbs can easily be grown organically using high-quality soil. Using organic plant food such as Espoma Organic Garden-tone or Espoma Organic Plant-tone. I like to use Espoma Organic Tomato-tone because it has a lot of calcium.
- While most herbs are grown for their leaves, some, such as chamomile, are grown for their flowers.
- Dill and cilantro are used fresh and also harvested for their seeds once the flowers dry out (cilantro seeds are known as coriander).
- At the end of the growing season, you can harvest and freeze leaves so you will have plenty all winter long.
I love buying locally-grown soft cheese. I will then add an herb to the cheese to spice it up. My favorite addition to the cheese is dill.
PLANT A LITTLE HAPPINESS WITH HERBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!