Do you love gardening and want to have your own kitchen garden?
It was my fascination too and when I tasted the fresh taste and flavor of Basil a few years back, I decided to have my own kitchen herbs garden.
Someone correctly said - No balcony is too small, no kitchen too cramped to stop you from growing your own herbs.
Today, I will share 2 different techniques using which you can grow 3 types of herbs at home. I have been using these techniques from years and the results are just fantastic !
The easiest and my all time favourites herbs are Mint, Basil and Parsley !
1. SOWING SEEDS METHOD :
The first method involves sowing seeds into the soil mix, and I think you will love getting your hands dirty while sowing the seeds, just like I do.
The first step is to take some 5cm pots and fill them to half their height with moist, peat-free soil mix and sprinkle a few seeds of basil, mint, and parsley into them. ( Use seperate pots for each herb )
Next, cover the seeds with a loose layer of compost, add some water and then wrap the top of the pot with clingfilm or newspaper to create a microclimate, and the seeds germinate faster. ( it works like a greenhouse chamber )
After about 5 weeks, the seedlings should have developed their first 'true' leaves. Now, it is time to transfer them to a bigger pot.
These pots provide me with bundles of fresh herbs, often leaving me with a surplus to dry or make into a delicious homemade pesto.
2. PROPAGATION METHOD :
You can also grow these herbs with the technique of propagation.
This easy propagation technique involves cutting a stem from a already matured herb plant, putting the cutting in water, and waiting until it grows new roots.
You can keep growing the herb in the water ( indoors ), or transplant it to the soil in the garden.
Note that Parsley is an annual herb, and that should be grown from seeds and does not work with the propagation method.
Believe me, there is something really satisfying about growing your own herbs. A quick snip of lovingly grown basil, chives, mint, or coriander into an equally lovingly prepared dish adds a level of completeness you just can't achieve from a jar of dried stuff you bought from the supermarket.
Fresh herbs from the supermarket are grown in intensive, hot-house conditions, and can be fed with a host of unsavory pesticides and fertilizers. Because they're put under so much pressure to produce lots of lush leaves, their root balls don't develop properly, so they're most likely to die as soon as you've got them home.
HAPPY WINTERS
HAPPY HERB GROWING !
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