 Herbs
New flavour for your garden and life
By Connie Kehler
Herbs – for some people the term brings
visions of savoury, exquisite meals prepared by the finest of
chefs. For others it brings visions of an elaborate formal garden
prepared and planned with the greatest of care by the most dedicated
and experienced gardeners.
Could you dare to integrate these visions
into your own garden and kitchen? What if you are not that fine
chef or the master gardener? If you can grow a marigold you can
grow herbs. If you can scramble an egg you can integrate the sensational
flavours of herbs into your meals.
What is a herb? The botanical term herb covers
more plants that you could imagine. The way we use the term in
day-to-day language includes plants that are used for flavouring
or medicine. Generally, we mean plants that we use the leaves,
flowers and/or roots of for the purpose of flavouring or medicine.
So where to start? First forget about thinking
that herbs are a unique category of plants that require specialized
skills to grow. You can have perennial, annual, and biennial herbs.
You can have ones that are extremely hardy and others that are
very fragile. You can have herbs that thrive in drought and others
that live best standing in water. Herbs are just plants like the
flowers you grow in your flowerbeds and the veggies you grow in
your garden; they are as diverse as all of these and carry with
them a lot of the same characteristics and problems.
There are a lot of myths out there. You can
pick up books that tell you that herbs grow in the sun in well-drained
soil. Taking a look at the range of herbs available to grow, that
wide sweeping statement is equivalent to saying all plants grow
in the sun in well-drained soil. Herbs do not get diseases and
are not bothered by pests. False. Any set of plants grown in an
integrated setting seem more immune to these problems. Sometimes
this is because of mutual repellent benefits. Other times it is
because there is not enough of a mass of the plants to attract
pests. Put these same plants into a mono-culture (a large area
of one type of plant) situation and all this changes. They then
become susceptible to the same problems as other field scale crops.
Where to plant? Does a structured herb garden
and the formable task of establishing and maintaining it terrify
you? There are no rules governing where you have to plant herbs.
Only the needs of the plants will dictate its location. If you
are a novice and as busy as the rest of us seem to be, plant your
herbs close to your door. Why not plant some of your favourites
in your flowerpots or beds along with the flowers.
A tall fluffy ferny anise is a wonderful backdrop
for a bed of pansies. Plant it so you can grab a few leaves to
munch on the way out the door, this natural breath freshener may
just save the day. Parsley makes a great border or focal plant
in your perennial bed. The curled parsley looks like a wonderful
mini hedge that will have your friends scrambling to figure out
what it is! Flat or Italian parsley not only stands stately as
a focal point but is delicious to eat!
Love the taste of fresh celery? Try growing
Lovage, a perennial herb that grows like a small tree in your
garden. It is not unusual to see it grow 8 feet tall! A word of
caution though one plant will be enough for a small army to live
on.
A fresh slice of cucumbers defines summer;
a herbal version is borage, its leaves have the fresh cut cucumber
taste for salads and it flowers taste like little candies. Love
food cooked with fresh cilantro, like the taste of curry? Grow
coriander. This diverse plant has a split personality. When it
is in its leaf stage, it is named cilantro and when it goes to
seed, it is coriander! The leaf stage likes the weather cooler
and the seed hot!
Love pesto but cringe at the price? This scrumptious
green paste that is becoming so popular is simply a combination
of garlic, pine nuts (optional), olive oil and fresh basil. Sweet
bush basil is a good choice. It likes a home that is hot and well
drained. Right by your foundation on the south side of the house
is ideal. Basil has beautiful flowers but unless you are not going
to eat it, keep pruning it to prevent flowering. Successive planting
will ensure a full season of pesto ready basil.
Some herbs very diligently work two jobs.
Mint can be grown easily; if not controlled by restricting its
evasive roots, it will invade and take over your garden. Mint
is not only good for culinary but it can stand guard around your
compost bin warding off mice looking for lunch. Tagetes lemon
gem is really diligent. It is a low growing mound lemon marigold
that adds a wonderful lemon accent to drinks or to fish. It is
great looking does not mind being trampled on and to top all that
off it wards off ants and mosquitoes!
Herbs come in many forms; let their wonders
enhance your life today.
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