Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Enjoyment As Well As Other Benefits Of Raising Your Own Herbs

By Robert Wilson


Growing your own herbs is simple to do and can be very rewarding as many herbs can be added to culinary dishes to enhance the flavor of our food. You can use a small portion of your garden, or maybe planting pots, to raise enough herbs to satisfy all your needs - and your neighbourhood garden center or nursery will stock just about everything that's needed for starting out. Let's quickly check out some of the primary advantages of growing herbs and the many uses for them.

Probably the most well-known use of herbs is in cooking, chiefly to add taste but sometimes also color. They actually can be added to all sorts of dishes and this can include salads and soups. There are lots of meat dishes where herbs assist you to enhance the overall taste and if using your own, you will know that these are freshly picked from your garden. Quality recipes can be adjusted to bring new culinary satisfaction to meals that were becoming a little mundane and everyday.

Over the ages an array of illnesses and diseases have been successfully treated with herbs, many of which are credited with curative powers. Several natural remedies can be found for various health complaints which are easily obtained with a bit of research. All these herbs are put to use either fresh or dried out and can be taken internally, such as in drinking teas or tinctures or used externally by being applied to poultices and creams that can be applied to affected areas. If you find it difficult to fall asleep, take camomile to calm and soothe you into a peaceful slumber, while if an upset stomach is your trouble then the way to settle it is with peppermint tea.

Pick or trim your surplus herbs, which usually influences further growth, and then dry them for keeping. Utilize them as you did the fresh version, in teas and as a culinary flavorant. Creating potpourri is one more use for dried herbs and flowers whereas another is purely to supply a decorative touch. The spicy smell of dried herbs can easily soothe and please at the same time. A handful of dried lavender tied up with twine and hung from a kitchen ceiling offers an attractive countryside feel and provides the lovely lavender color and scent.

It does not matter if you only have a small garden, herbs are very easily grown at home even with limited space. Believe it or not most herbs grow very well in pots and mint is a good model of this. Some other plants grown near mint are not recommended, since its active and lusty spreading habit will soon suffocate them. This development is usually contained effectively when cultivated in a pot. As with most container gardening you will need to water the pots on a regular basis to prevent them from drying out.

Growing your personal herbs can be another great way of getting children involved in gardening as it can be cheap and easy to do. It may also get your children interested in cooking by adding the herbs they have grown to dishes and helping them to discover different flavors. An easy but fascinating way to get them started is to allow them to sow and then watch grow some cress in a windowsill planter. Apart from the easiness with which it grows, cress boasts the fun and tasty benefit that it can be cut and added to their food.

So you'll find plenty of reasons to start growing your own herbs and you will soon reap the benefits of your efforts.




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