GARDENING: THE HERB MENTALITY
Creating a sustainable herb garden is surprisingly easy, joyously rewarding and highly recommended for both new and experienced gardeners alike.
Many herbs are far easier to grow than, for example, a vegetable garden, especially if your garden is a small one or you grow plants only in pots.
Vegetables are fairly affordable when in season but fresh herbs, when and if you are lucky enough to find them, tend to be quite expensive. On the positive side, you can grow lots of them in a small space. While they are not a meal on their own, their exquisite flavours and aromas have the ability to transform even a mediocre meal into something very special.
Herb gardens are beautiful places but also can help transform even a mediocre meal into something special
Herb gardens need to have six to eight hours of sunshine each day and the soil should be well-drained as water-logged roots — unless growing something like water mint — can often result in problems such as root rot, ultimately killing the plants.
It is a good idea to locate your herb garden close to the kitchen if you possibly can. This makes it easy to nip out and cut whatever herbs you wish to add to the food under preparation.
As with all plants, it is a matter of growing tall herbs at the back of the bed, medium height in the middle and low growing ones at the front. Spaces between plants vary from species to species and different species also need different sizes of pots/containers. As there isn’t enough space in this column for separate growing information about individual herbs, I suggest that, having decided which herbs to grow, you do a little research of your own. Researching specific plants is a wonderful way of learning about their individual needs, their histories and their uses and it’s a very enjoyable pastime too.