Grow Your Own Herbs

Good flavors are an essential part of cooking tasty dishes, and you can grow your own herbs if you want the freshest ingredients available. Many people use dried herbs because they don’t realize how easy it can be to grow your own herbs, and instead of learning about the growing process they simply purchase the pre-packaged herbs at the grocery store.

Why You Should Grow Your Own Herbs

The reason that it is a good idea to grow your own herbs is because you can always have fresh herbs available when you are cooking. Additionally, you will know that the herbs are high quality, and free of pesticides that are often found in dried herbs at the grocery store. Another benefit is the fact that it is often cheaper to grow your own, because you only need to pay for the seeds.

How to Grow Your Own Herbs

If you choose to grow your own herbs in the kitchen, a simple box in the window is a sufficient location for a few essential flavors. Start out by sprouting the seeds, and then plant them in a little bit of nutrient rich soil. Place the planter in a window or another location that receives a lot of sunlight, and make sure to water the plants on a regular basis.

If you are nervous about trying to put together the supplies to grow your own herbs garden, you can even purchase kits that will provide you with the box, soil and seeds so that you only need to assemble the kit and start watering. You will find that it can be very rewarding to see the herbs growing in your kitchen, and you will have a sense of accomplishment as the plants grow larger.

Additionally, herbs can also be grown outside if you have an appropriate place to grow them. However, it is important to be careful about growing herbs in a public area, because you don’t want them to be sprayed by pest or weed control products. You may consider using a raised box or something to identify that the plants are intended for consumption.

Using Your Herbs

Once the herbs begin to grow, it is easy to snip off a few leaves whenever the recipe calls for a specific herb to use. It is a good idea to do a little research about how much to use, because the measurements for dried herbs and fresh herbs are often different.

Also, keep in mind that it is important to keep your herbs labeled so that you are using the correct ingredients in your recipes. If you have several types of herbs growing, it may be easy to confuse the plants. Using the wrong ingredient in a recipe can drastically change the taste of the dish.

It is easy and fun to grow your own herbs, you will see that it can save you money and provide you with fresh ingredients for your favorite recipes.