To learn more about herb gardens, it helps to understand what herbs are. There are many herbs and herb gardens, all of which have different uses. Read on for information on using herb gardens.
What is a herb?
Medicinal plants are defined as plants that are useful to humans. Unlike a vegetable or fruit, we value herbs for many reasons. An herb can be useful for its taste, aroma, medicinal properties, or as an insecticide. Some herbs are used as dyes or pigments for industrial use. Herbs have been use for thousands of years in teas and balms to treat physical disorders including unsettled stomachs and diseases brought on by stress.
Herbs are not only useful for humans but also attractive. Gardeners use them as borders, along paths, and mixed with flowers and shrubs. Cooks use them for the unique flavors they add to food.
Spices are plants used in many ways, like herbs, but they come from tropical regions. Spices are more difficult to grow. While herbs may flourish practically everywhere there is a growing season, vegetables can not.While herbs may flourish practically everywhere there is a growing season, vegetables can not. There are three types of herbs:
- biennials (plants that last for two seasons),
- annuals (plants that only last for one season),
- perennials (plants that return year after year).
What is a herb garden?
A herb garden is a garden used only for growing herbs. A better description of what a herb garden is is a beautiful and relaxing place to find plants that are not just useful but useful for life’s pleasures.
A herb garden can be any size or shape and can contain different many types of herbs or just a few. A herb garden can take up an entire patio or be planted in a small window box. Herb gardens can be kept indoors, in a sunny window, or in the open air. A herb garden design can be a vegetable patch, landscaped with shrubs, or mixed with your flowers.
indoor herb garden
You may have access to fresh herbs all year long without needing an outside garden thanks to an indoor herb garden. Some people can also cultivate a variety of plants, including lettuce, fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Even people without a green thumb should be able to utilize a decent indoor garden since it should provide nice, fresh vegetables. You’ll be motivated to try new dishes like pasta with parsley pesto or pork tenderloin with lemon, herbs, and garlic.
Experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen and Innovation Lab have tested the indoor herb garden kits for over a year. We evaluated ease of use, smart features like connected apps, and how well the plants grew. Consumer testers have also tested some. We looked into whether herb gardens require branded seeds or seedlings or whether you can plant your own.
Benefits of growing an indoor herb garden
Imagine always having herbs and a wonderful aroma at your fingertips. Not only will this take a few items off your shopping list, but your home will always smell amazing. Growing in your own indoor herb garden can be a fun experiment and a smart move. Here are eight reasons why you should grow your indoor herb garden:
1. Save money
herbs and spices are essential to preparing everyday meals, whether adding a little flavour to a recipe or reaping countless health benefits. By growing your herbs, you don’t have to worry about changing a recipe due to a lack of needed herbs, and you can stop running to your local grocery store for such a small ingredient. Store-bought herbs are often a tax on our wallets because they are somewhat expensive (about $3.00 for a small bundle). You often pay for three times more herbs than you need and toss the excess wilted herbs in the fridge a few days later.
2. Sustainability
In addition to being pricey, store-bought herbs are often packed in single-use containers and displayed separately on market shelves, adding more plastic to landfills after being discarded. Disposing of unused herbs contributes to an even bigger problem of food waste. while food scraps end up in landfills, they break down and release dangerous greenhouse gases like methane into the atmosphere. It is estimated that 40% of the Food in America is never consumed, and it’s a shame that something as small as packaged herbs contributes to that.
3. Low maintenance
Herbs are relatively easy to care for and can be kept near a window in your home where they will get plenty of sunlight (or anywhere if grown in a small garden). Since herbs are small plants, they are great to keep on a windowsill or in a designated space in the kitchen. Many herbs are perennial, which means they can last a long time with proper care.
4. Fresh taste
Who knows how long herbs from the shop remain on the shelves? Your home’s cozy indoor herb garden will keep your herbs fresh and prepared for any meal. To keep these plants fresh on their shelves, many retailers need the ideal levels of humidity, light, oxygen, and temperature. You’re better off picking a few leaves from your herb garden to ensure freshness since nobody likes to use stale herbs in food.
5. Security
When you buy anything from a store, you often need to find where the products come from. The herbs, in particular, may have been grown in an area where spraying with pesticides and other harmful chemicals is common. Keeping your herb garden gives you more peace of mind when using fresh herbs for culinary purposes.
6. Seasonality
Indoor gardens are the smart choice when growing an indoor or outdoor garden. Keeping your plants inside ensures your plants don’t die due to weather variations. Maintaining an outdoor garden can be difficult in states where temperatures are often one of two extremes. You’ll never have to deal with pesky pests or nutrient deficiencies that often occur in outdoor soil.
7. Aesthetics
Many people create an indoor garden for the same reason they would buy any decor or artwork. Living art adds aesthetic value to a home, and surrounding yourself with plants can contribute to various health benefits. Not to mention, herbs smell amazing and freshen up any space, often masking unwanted odors.
Disadvantages of growing herbs indoors
Herbs need a lot of light. Most herbs need at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight to grow. While this is usually not an issue on the outside, the inside is different. A typical home may not have enough light, and your plant’s chances of survival are at stake. The best light can be found in a south-facing window, but not all homes have that option, leaving the only option as a supplemental grow light. Leggy plants are a good sign that these herbs need more sunlight.
Additional lighting can be expensive. This is another additional cost for growing herbs at home for those with less light and more needs. It might not be a huge expense for the type of light it gets and the number of plants, but it’s still a factor to consider before considering that indoor herb garden.
Warm weather is important. It’s no secret that many herbs like heat. Many are native to warmer regions. Indoor heat in winter can be quite dry and not the best for growing herbs. You can spend time improving the humidity to keep your plants from drying out or placing them in a pebble tray filled with water, and this can lead to additional problems if you need to be more careful.
Watering can be difficult. Water becomes another issue with indoor herb gardening, as it is sprayed on to keep the foliage wet and lush. First, if you have high sodium content or treat your water with chemicals, it can harm your plants. And like many grasses, they prefer dry conditions; Unfortunately, we tend to kill our plants gently, especially in winter. Of course, too much is good, as too much water can be harmful, causing root rot and the eventual demise of your beloved plants.
No problem how much space you have, you can always add a few more herbs!
Here are 12 space-saving growing ideas for herb gardens. They are supposed to help you grow as many herbs as possible, even in the smallest space. Whether you’re growing herbs indoors, on a porch or patio, or in your garden, we’ve covered a wide range of ideas that should inspire you:
1. Shelves for vases
In small spaces, many people grow herbs indoors or outdoors on a sunny windowsill in pots or on a shelf against a bright wall. Some space-saving growing ideas include finding new ways to increase the number of frames or flat surfaces available to place utensils.
Ideas include:
A shelf made of rope.
Creation of new shelves against a wall with recovered materials. (Or, for example, you can make new shelves out of old wooden pallets or planks between brick pillars.
Using an old ladder as a series of pot holders in your home or garden.
Use of old furniture: an old bookcase can be used. But you can do something more unusual, like creating a series of tiered shelves from an old chest of drawers.
Racks hung from ropes or wires, suspended from hooks, screws or other fasteners.
Use suction cup hooks to hang small shelves or boxes before a window.
2. Vertical gardens
Shelves are a way to use available vertical space. You can also create a series of dedicated vertical gardens that allow you to grow herbs (and other leafy plants) vertically.
An old wood plank is nailed to a wall, and herbs are grown between the planks.
For example, to create a herb garden against a sunny wall, you can:
Create a vertical garden from wooden pallets.
Create a vertical garden with pipes or drains (perhaps plants that grow in water, not soil).
Create a vertical fabric garden with potting pockets (use a shoe organizer or make your own from recycled fabric). These three types of vertical gardens allow you to grow a large number of herbs in a tight space against a wall or fence.
3. Plant pillars or barrels
Another idea for using vertical space to grow herbs is to create planting towers (or barrels planted not only on the top or sides). You can create:
A tower of 5-gallon buckets. (The strawberry tower linked below can also grow a wide variety of herbs.)
The bottle tower is a herb garden.
A garden of 55-gallon kegs.
when If you use your imagination, you can think about of many other salvaged materials that can be recycled and used to make plant pillars or barrels similarly.
4. Wall planters
A wide range of planters fixed to a wall or fence can also be used. They can be connected to a partial vertical garden but can be placed wherever there’s a little space. 🇧🇷
As mentioned above, you can use plastic bottles. They can be placed not only as planters but also as freestanding wall-mounted planters. Milk containers can also create vases against vertical surfaces, mounted individually or hung from a branch, twig or wooden stick.
You can hang an old grater on the wall to provide an extra pot for your herbs. And many other antique kitchen appliances can be charged in the same way.You can create a series of wall-mounted wooden box planters. Simple metal bands or rings can also work well for mounting vases to a wall. You can use macramé to make a wall-hanging basket for a herb planter.
5. Hanging vases
MacramĂ© can also work well for hanging vases, which can be handmade or recycled. You can make your own “yarn” from old t-shirts or clothes.
Again, you can make your hanging planters from old plastic bottles, milk jugs, food-grade buckets, or other household waste. Just string them along the twine or hang them from a string, twine or rope.
You can create your own hanging baskets if you learn some simple basket skills.
Many things can be repurposed and reused as hanging baskets in your herb garden, from old tires to kitchen utensils and old embroidery hoops…
You can use earth, moss, and string to make ball pots to grow your herbs.
6. Stacked containers
Another super easy way to think about using vertical space in a herb garden is to stack pots of
