Herb Gardening Essentials - Gardener Guide

By: Matthew Hick

Herbs are a greatly popular result of gardening - just as popular as flowers, shrubs, trees, fruits and vegetables. Herbs are used to spice up or add a nice spark of flavor to all types of food dishes. They are used for medicinal purposes as well as for their pretty flowers. These are just a few reasons why herbs are so popular among gardeners all over the world.

Have you ever reached for a spice when cooking only to realize you were out of it? Wouldn't it be nice to just go over to your plant and clip off what you need, instead of running to the store or doing without? You can have fresh basil, thyme, sage, chives, dill, rosemary or tarragon right at your fingertips from your very own herb garden.

Herbs can be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annuals will flower one season and then die. Biennials will live two seasons, flower one and then die. Perennials will die in winter but return to blossom each season. If you do choose perennials, make sure you plant them in a place they can be kept year after year.

Herb gardens need little space. You can plant them by seeds or plant clippings. Seeds should be planted in shallow boxes in late winter and can then be transplanted outdoors in spring. Soil is a determining factor of whether your herb garden will thrive or falter. Herbs will not grow in wet soil. So it is important you provide adequate drainage. If you do not have good drainage you can correct this by adding compost and sand to your soil, or digging out 15-18 inches of dirt and adding crushed stone under it to assist in this process.

Herbs also do not need much fertilizer. The more fertile the soil, the less foliage will occur and the resulting herb will have little flavor. There are also very few diseases and insects which will attack herbal plants.

Harvesting herbs should take place in the morning and only after the plant has enough foliage to maintain growth. When picked, they should be washed immediately in cold water. They can be used fresh or dried for winter use.

To dry herbs, after washing, hang until drops of water evaporate. Tie the stems together and place in a bag with the stems at the bag's opening. Close the bag with a rubber band and hang from a line in a cool, dry, dark place. Basements are too damp, so the attic is a better choice. After two to three weeks, remove herbs from the bag and crumble the leaves. Place in a shallow pan and put in an oven on the warm setting. When the crumbled leaves are crispy, store in glass jars or an airtight container in a cool place. They will be ready for you whenever you need them.

There are almost sixty different varieties of herbs to choose from when deciding on what herb to plant. Each variety comes with its own unique flavor. Cooking with herbs livens up bland foods naturally. Add some gusto to your life and use some of the herbs from your very own garden, next time you are preparing a meal.

About the Author

More Herb Gardening Articles at http://www.eGardening-Today.com. Learn how to operate a Successful Adsense Website Network at http://eWebCreator.com. Matthew Hick has been designing profitable Niche Adsense Websites for over 5 years.

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A Mini Herb Garden That Goes a Long Way

By: Eustache Davenport

Any great meal starts with fresh ingredients, so it is said and has been proven time and time again. So, imagine that if instead of using store bought herbs to add some zest to the meal, you could simply pick the herbs you need while preparing a meal, a snack, a salad directly from the plants in your mini herb garden on the kitchen windowsill.

Can't get any fresher than that, right! Fresh herbs will add a ''zestier" burst of flavor that you will definitively notice. Think of great meals in a many-stars restaurants you might have enjoyed so much that you can almost feel the taste in your mouth when reminiscing about them. You can be sure that they insist on fresh supplies and it definitively includes fresh herbs.

A lot of folks live in small apartments and lack space as some people just don't wish to get into a bigger size garden project for lack of experience or might not dispose of much time, no matter the reason, a mini garden is a fantastic solution to consider. It is an occasion to start small and let you test your skills at this highly rewarding hobby. Some parents initiates the young ones to life, evolution and the practicality of cultivating and the rewards to reap through a mini herb garden for kids.

These kitchen herb gardens have been gaining in popularity for some time now, certainly for the fresh, healthy and flavorful value they add to any prepared dish but also for the economical alternative that assure a constant fresh supply.

Of course, once you have a good experience with your initial project and see how easy it really is, you may wish to add a few more plants and expand.
Big or small garden: Same rules apply
The mini garden requires the same basics care as larger gardens do. Lots of sunlight, a good soil that drains well and regular appropriate amount of water. Of course, a small scale garden will require only minimal maintenance. Another advantage is the miniature garden is the next-to-nothing space they occupy. The 1 to 3 pot making-up your garden can occupy the kitchen windowsill is very handy when preparing dishes. The biggest downfall of growing only a few plants restricts the choice of fresh herbs you can use.
The choice of herbs
Considering the large choice of herbs to choose from, the biggest dilemma you might have to deal with is which ones to grow. Start with a choice that is practical and can be used for multiple purposes or the one you use a lot in your cooking. Take full advantage of the work you will be doing to give provide good care to those plants.
Herb Garden Kits
The variety of choice is considerable and can pretty much live up to most needs. A herb garden kit require a one-stop purchase, is easy and quick set-up and contains all you need to start a mini herb garden. The only other element to provide is water. If the space you can provide for the garden is more in height, a stacking herb garden is available but usually contains more herbs.

Once the first steps are taken in this adventure, expanding to numerous mini gardens adds variety to you choice of herbs for cooking but also for other purposes. Consider a little garden for tea herbs or, grow a few medicinal herbs that can be what the doctor orders.


About the Author


Eustache Davenport is a gardening enthusiast and author. He lives in Montreal and enjoy teaching his gardening secrets to work groups on how to setup, optimize and maintain an amazing herb garden. For more great tips and information on kitchen herb gardens, visit http://www.herbgardeningonlineguide.com.

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Simple Provolone

 Flickr photo by:  Dan Bock


Ingredients

1 gallon whole milk
1/2 teaspoon liquid rennet


Steps

• Heat 1 gallon milk to 86 degrees.
• Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon of liquid rennet in 1/4 cup of water.
• Add diluted rennet to the milk.
• When coaugulated firmly, cut into 3/4 inche tubes.
• Increase the temperature of the curds as high as your hands can tolerate.
• Using your hands, press the curds into 1 solid ball and remove it from the whey.
• Place the curds into a mold and press gently until firm.
• Return the curd, still in mold, to the whey
• Heat whey to 200 degrees.
• Turn off heat and wait until everything is cold.
• Remove cheese from whey and allow to drain for 24 hours.
• Soak in a saturated salt solution for 1 hour.

Yield is about 1 pound