Start Your New Garden by Identifying Herbs to Plant From Your Favorite Recipes
If you’re new to gardening and want to give it a try, an herb garden is one of the most rewarding ways to start out. Identifying herbs for your new venture is as easy as simply consulting your taste buds. Decide which herbs you typically like to use in your cooking and they’ll make a great combination in your first herb garden.
Starting with herbs is ideal because you will have an immediate use for them in your kitchen, and they tend to grow rather quickly. In addition, while they require good soil and drainage, they tend to be easier to grow than other vegetables or flowers. Here are a few considerations for your first herb garden:
Keep it close to your kitchen: When deciding where to put your herb garden, choose a location that’s not more than 20 paces from where you do your cooking. You’ll want to be able to freely snip as you cook and make it as convenient as possible to use fresh herbs in your recipes. Find a spot that is in full sun at least half the day to achieve the best possible growing conditions.
Identifying herbs for easy snipping: When you’re in the middle of a recipe, you won’t want to spend time trying to distinguish cilantro from parsley. Invest in some garden markers so that you can tell, at a quick glance, which herb you need for your recipe.
Consider visual appeal: Herbs tend to be mostly green, so you may wonder if you’re stuck with a little visual boredom until you expand to flowering plants or a colorful vegetable garden filled with tomatoes and peppers. Your herb garden can enjoy a little color variation with thyme, sage and mint, which all come in variegated versions. There are some varieties of basil that have deep purple leaves. While green may dominate your color scheme, there are ways to change things up a bit and keep them from getting too monochromatic.
Choose a few fast-growing herbs: In order to see the fruits of your labor more quickly, it can be fun to include some fast-growing herbs. Dill, cilantro and basil are all choices that you can grow from seed rather quickly and enjoy them in your kitchen in just a few weeks. Many other herbs are perennials that will return each year, so the effort you put in with your first planting will pay off for years to come.
Identifying herbs for your first garden is a fun activity, so let your tastes be your guide! Once you’ve made your choices, invest in a set of Kincaid Plant Markers to make it easy to choose your favorite additions to your best family recipes.
