“Don’t distHERB the garden!”

Growing your own herb garden can be a fantastic way to add a little kick to your favourite dishes. But if you’ve never tried it before, the idea might be a little daunting. That’s why we want to give you a few tips and ideas to smooth the way so that you can easily add a little spice to your life.

For starters, while it may seem obvious, choose herbs with flavours that you actually like so you’ll use them. Herb plants are fairly inexpensive, so if you’re new to gardening (or just want to limit the amount of fuss involved), buy seedlings rather than trying to grow from seeds. When you’re starting out, don’t take on too many varieties of plants at once. Try to focus on one or two at the beginning.

You might not have a lot of space to work with, but one of the best things about herb gardens is that they can be very compact – you can even grow them in containers on your window sill or kitchen counter. If you want to plant your herbs in the garden, a word of warning: some herbs can spread far and fast. They might try to take over the rest of your garden if you give them the chance.

Hanging picked herbs to dry can enhance flavour and make the spice easier to grind.

Caring for Herb Gardens

Herbs are not houseplants. While most houseplants do well with a good watering once a week, it’s better for herbs if they get a drink every day. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but definitely keep their soil nice and moist.

Speaking of soil, we recommend BigYellowBag Black Garden Soil. The light, fluffy properties of the soil makes for a perfect growing medium. Proper drainage is crucial to growing herbs. Our Black Garden Soil is a perfect mix of black loam, peat loam, compost and manure. Loam is a soil type comprised of sand, silt and clay in the right ratios. This soil type has the perfect balance of drainage and moisture retention to ensure herb growing success. It is also packed with essential nutrients and organic matter to give your herbs the “food” that they need.

Now, once your herbs start growing, make sure you harvest early, and harvest often. It may seem counter intuitive, but generally speaking, you don’t want your herbs to flower. You want them to focus all of their energy on growing more leaves. Be sure to research the best practices for cutting the herbs you’re growing.

Finally, be sure to use your herbs. There are a lot of different ideas out there for uses of herbs beyond just cooking. Explore your options, and have fun!