How to Grow Herbs:
Tips and Guidelines for Aspiring Gardeners
Once you've decided where, how large, what design, and what kind of herbs you will be growing in your garden, it's time to start growing it! Most herb plants are grown from seeds. Some plants can be grown from cuttings or seedlings, but this can be tricky for a beginning gardener, and having plants die on you is disheartening. If you'd rather not use seeds and are not confident with your skills in cultivating a plant cutting, you can buy small herb plants at garden shows or at local garden stores.
When you go down to the store to buy your seeds, check the package for instructions as to how many seeds per pot or plot is recommended. You can also look at the other details given on the seed packages, like how tall and how large the herb plant grows. This helps you position it in your garden or at least prepare you for how large it will be. This may also help your decisions if your herb garden is going to be a potted garden or a container herb garden.
Check to make sure your soil is in good condition. As mentioned in a previous article, you can have your soil checked for its fertility. If it isn't fertile enough for herbs, you can use fertilizer and compost to help make your garden soil a nice place for your herbs to grow. Coffee grounds make good fertilizer. They also keep bugs away, and smell good. Use your left over coffee grounds in your garden. You can also pick them up at your local coffee shops as they are usually willing to give them away. Make sure that your garden has a good drainage or irrigation system for your herbs. Herb plants should not be flooded with water, and good drainage is just as important as good soil.
Once you've prepared your seeds and soil, begin by digging up the soil, and shaping tiny mounds of soil into the design of your garden. Say you're going with a row design and you can have five rows of herbs. Create five long mounds of dug up soil and water these mounds. A moist environment is good for herbs. Remember that's moist, not wet. Leave your soil a little to dry out so it isn't too wet and the seeds don't rot when you put them in.
You can wet your soil in the afternoon and plant your seeds early the next morning. If an herb needs to be cultivated indoors, plant them in small pots or in biodegradable pots so that you can put these directly into your garden. Mornings are a good time for gardening because the sun is out but the air is still cool. Dig up some holes into your garden the next morning, and drop in the recommended number of seeds per plant. You don't have to plant all your plants in one day. Stop before noon. If you do want to get it all done in one day, create the holes the day before and the water them again before waiting till the next day to plant your seeds. After dropping the seeds in, cover them up with some moist soil and pat it down lightly. Don't pat it down tight as you need some oxygen in the soil.
Water your herbs once a day, mid morning is good, depending on the moisture in your area. Remember that you never want your herbs soaking for long periods of time. Now, you wait for growth. This can be frustrating, but be patient. They will grow!
