Enhance Your Cooking Experience By Growing Culinary Herbs

No matter what type of chef you consider yourself, growing culinary herbs and using them in your favorite dishes will enhance any of your cooking efforts. The other positive to growing culinary herbs is that many of them are considerably easy to grow, even if you are not blessed with a natural green thumb.

To understand what a culinary herb is, it is easiest to first understand what it is not. Spices are not herbs. These seasonings are usually extracted from flowers, seeds or barks, and tend to be more pungent in aroma and flavor than culinary herbs. Herbs are generally used by tearing or cutting up the leaves of the plants. Some of the most common culinary herbs are basil, oregano, parsley and sage. Most of these will be fairly easy to care for, and you can grow your culinary herbs indoors or out.

Growing Culinary Herbs - It's All About Location

The first step in successfully growing culinary herbs is to find the right location for them to thrive. Keep in mind that most herbs require plenty of good drainage to be happy, meaning that raised beds and pots are often good choices for these plants. In fact, you can enjoy growing culinary herbs year-round right on your own sunny windowsill indoors.

If you are planting outdoors, just make sure that the site that you select gets plenty of sun, and add some nutrients to the soil for best results. You can check with your local garden center to find out which types of nutrients in the form of fertilizer that you herbs will like the best.

Many people who grow culinary herbs find that these plants are quite ornamental as well as useful. Because of this, you might want to plan your herb garden accordingly, giving consideration to the aesthetics instead of simply rows in a garden. You can clump a variety of herbs throughout a rock garden, or add paths between your beds to that you can wander through your plantings and enjoy the beautiful colors and rich aromas. Herbs can also make a beautiful adornment to any patio or deck, and there are containers that are specifically designed to hold a variety of herbs that will cascade down the sides of the pot.

Best Choices For Growing Culinary Herbs

Beginning gardeners who would like to try their hand at growing culinary herbs will do best to begin with some of the easier plants to work with. These might include a variety of basils and oreganos, as well as dill, parsley, chives and thyme. Beware of your perennial herbs such as oregano, since these can easily take over a garden area if they are particularly happy and healthy. On the other hand, if you like to make fresh spaghetti sauce, the more oregano in your garden, the better!

If you end up with more herbs than you can use, you can simply cut your plants down and hang the stems upside down in a cool, dark place to dry. That way, you can have fresh herbs throughout the winter season as well.

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