Design Your Own Herb Garden
The Gardener|August 2020
If you’ve decided to grow your own food, think further than just vegetables.
Alice Spenser-Higgs
Design Your Own Herb Garden

Herbs are not only good companions for vegetables, but are also nutritionally rich, less demanding to grow, harvestable all year round, and there is no better way to naturally flavour food.

August is a good time to plan your herb garden or decide on how to incorporate herbs into the veggie garden. By September you should be ready to plant.

Although it is human nature to plunge in headfirst, the best way to get the most from your herb garden is to have a plan. Planning a herb garden involves deciding on a theme, selecting the site, creating the design and drawing up a herb list.

Step one

Start by selecting a theme, whether it is culinary or healing, or maybe a bit of both. For a culinary garden it could be as simple as choosing your favourite cooking herbs. The nine major culinary herbs are basil, chives, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, savory, sage, thyme.

Another option is to concentrate on herbs for a specific cuisine, or to include herbs with edible flowers or fruit-flavoured leaves that can be used in salads, punches and desserts, like rosemary, basil, pineapple sage, borage, mint, lemon verbena and lemon thyme.

Many of the culinary herbs have healing properties too. A first-aid garden is a good starting point and could include such dual-purpose herbs as thyme (antiviral and antibacterial), sage (antiseptic), parsley (immune boosting), rosemary (antimicrobial and soothing) and peppermint (relieves itching and inflammation when applied topically).

Herbal teas are soothing, delicious and the safest way to ingest herbs, provided that you don’t drink more than three cups a day for longer than a week. Consider fruity herbs like bergamot, lemon verbena, lemon thyme, rose geranium, chamomile, chocolate mint, English lavender and lemon balm.

この記事は The Gardener の August 2020 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は The Gardener の August 2020 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

THE GARDENERのその他の記事すべて表示
FIRE AND Feathers!
The Gardener

FIRE AND Feathers!

On a dreary winter's day, a screen of fiery and feathery leaves puts up a fight against dullness!

time-read
2 分  |
July/August 2024
GET THE ladies in!
The Gardener

GET THE ladies in!

At this time of year, early-flowering shrubs vie with each other to get the most attention. We say: Trust those with female names for frills and butterflies. They go the extra mile to flower their hearts out.

time-read
1 min  |
July/August 2024
Vegetable Soups and dumplings
The Gardener

Vegetable Soups and dumplings

Vegetables make the most delicious soups and classic combinations are always a winner.

time-read
4 分  |
July/August 2024
Yummy sweet potatoes for your good health
The Gardener

Yummy sweet potatoes for your good health

Boiled, baked or braaied, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are a delicious and healthy winter comfort food. Just a dollop of butter, a little seasoning and you are good to go.

time-read
3 分  |
July/August 2024
Pretty and functional
The Gardener

Pretty and functional

If cooking is your main thing, you would probably be more interested in the culinary value of the three herbs and some of their varieties we are describing.

time-read
5 分  |
July/August 2024
Dried Seedheads & Pods
The Gardener

Dried Seedheads & Pods

Autumn and winter are the best times to see what flowers produce the best seedheads that can be left on the plants to feed the birds and bugs and for harvesting for dried arrangements.

time-read
4 分  |
July/August 2024
SO MANY FACES and so many choices...
The Gardener

SO MANY FACES and so many choices...

Whoever associated a Cotyledon orbiculata (pig's ear) with the ear of a pig obviously did not know about all the varieties and cultivars this species in the genus Cotyledon has.

time-read
3 分  |
July/August 2024
COLOURFUL Cold Weather WINNERS!
The Gardener

COLOURFUL Cold Weather WINNERS!

If it comes to a vote, these dependable shrubs will be the top candidates for prime performance in winter and in other seasons...

time-read
5 分  |
July/August 2024
What makes a garden sustainable?
The Gardener

What makes a garden sustainable?

It is interesting to note that the United Nations defines sustainable development as: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

time-read
4 分  |
July/August 2024
Nurturing NATURE-The Story of Kraal Garden's Transformation
The Gardener

Nurturing NATURE-The Story of Kraal Garden's Transformation

Nestled within Prince Albert's rustic embrace lies a gem that is a testament to the transformative power of human vision and nature's bounty.

time-read
4 分  |
July/August 2024