You Can Grow Your Own Herb Garden - Part 6

Author: Melinda Robinson

Source: articleage.com



Harvesting
While I think everything about growing herbs is a wonderful experience (well, maybe not the weeding!),, garages, harvesting is one my favorite things. It is, after all, the biggest reason to grow your herb garden.
Harvesting the herbs is very easy if you remember, garages, a few small guidelines, garages, . For one thing, you should never take more than 2/3 from a mature plant, and preferably less than that. It's tempting to take a bunch of the herb when, garages, it first begins to grow toward maturity, but limit yourself to a few leaves in the beginning. Taking, garages, too much from a young plant can kill, garages, it.
Use a pair of small gardening, garages, scissors to cut herbs. Make gentle cuts just above tender, new sprouts. If you make sure that there is still fresh growth, your herb plants will continue to flourish and give you a large, garages, crop. With some herbs, such as sage, cut back the thick, woody stalks, garages, , garages, first.
Cut back your herbs after the flower buds first appear, but before the flowers open. If you wait until the flowers bloom, the volatile oils and therefore most of the flavor are greatly reduced. On, garages, the other hand, if you harvest too early, the oils haven't fully developed. An exception to this "rule" is lavender, which should be harvested just after the delicate purple flowers have faded. Try to do your cutting in the morning after the dew is dry but before, garages, the sun gets hot.
Drying
Most people like to dry their herbs for later use. Drying them is extremely easy, even in humid climates. There's no need for large screens or elaborate set-ups; a ball of twine, some paper bags, and a place for hanging is all you need.
After you've harvested your herbs, rinse them thoroughly in a bath of lukewarm water. Gently swish them about in the water. You may need to gently coax stubborn dirt or sand off some of the leaves, or remove leaves with cocoons or egg sacks stuck beneath them. Look, garages, carefully for these kinds of things -- it certainly wouldn't be any fun to find a family of spiders living in a jar of carefully, garages, dried herbs!
Remove excess water from the herbs with, garages, a large towel, garages, . Fold the towel in half, and gently press the stalks between the folds. You can also place them in a dishdrainer,, garages, laying them carefully to prevent crowding. Gather several, garages, stalks together in a bundle. With a length of twine, tightly wrap the, garages, base of the bundle 3-4 times around, then tie securely, leaving a large loop for hanging purposes. You can then hang the bundles somewhere to dry. If you would like to keep dust off the herbs while, garages, they dry, put the herb bundles upside down into small paper bags. Gather the top of the bags around the tied base and secure with a rubber, garages, band, more twine, or even a long twist-tie.
Some people, garages, like to hang bagged herbs in a garage or spare room and open up the bags whenever they need some of the, garages, herbs. I prefer to clean the dried leaves from the stalks and store them in clean, garages, bottles, which I then label with the appropriate name. Herbs will keep best in bottles of darkly colored glass, such as those from powdered coffee creamer, but if they, garages, are stored in a dark place you can use any color bottle you have on hand.
As you can see, herbs are easy to work with from growth to use. A little planning and a modicum of, garages, care are all that is needed for you to have, garages, a delightful source for culinary, medicinal, and craft uses. Take a chance -- there's a bountiful harvest waiting, garages, for you!
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Melinda Robinson is controlling partner in Rodeo City Technology Group, a Texas-based company that offers TMS (Total Marketing Solutions) -- including custom content creation -- that fit your business and bring maximum ROI. http://www.rodeocitytech.com
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Why Container Gardening?

Author: Nancy Merkle

Source: ezinearticles.com



Container gardening is convenient for the elderly or the disabled, garages, who need easier access to up keep their gardens. Container gardening can be done on backyard, garages, tabletops, ledges, over the edge of a balcony and even on steps. This process, garages, can be very decorative as well.

Container gardening can be done in store bought, garages, containers or homemade containers. I like to go to garage sales and find some unusual items to grow plants in. My front yard has very poor, garages, soil for planting, garages, delicate flowers. So I leave that soil to my hardier plants like bushes and broad leaf plants. I discovered an old washtub at a garage sale one day and incorporated this into my garden for my flowers.

I simply drilled several holes into the bottom of the tub, then put in about an inch of stones to semi cover the holes so as not to lose too much of the soil. Then came the soil. This will depend on what you are, garages, going to plant.

All Purpose Mixture

2 parts good garden loam

1 part sand

1 part peat moss or other humus

1-teaspoon, garages, bone meal for, garages, each 5-inch pot of mixture

I plant most of my garden varieties using this mixture. If I plant, garages, in an area where there is a busy activity of bugs I will place a piece of window screening under the container as this seems to slow down their attack and it gives me a chance to combat their activities. By placing the screening under the container it holds the screening tightly to the container, as the, garages, weight of the dirt inside pushes, garages, down, garages, . This way it is harder for critters like grubs and slugs to get around the screening, a very handy tool.

Other ideas to name a few are, old watering cans, (these too can be found in garage sales), and coffee cans decorated by your children, which is a fun project for a rainy day, garages, . For this I give it a spray with any kind, garages, of craft sealant good for outdoors, or simply use these inside. Container gardening can be fun and quite rewarding.

Hi! My name is Nancy Merkle. My husband Joe and I are amateur gardeners. We live in the suburbs of Chicago. Needless to say our growing season is just six months at best. In the spring a little competition begins in the neighborhood with the neighbors. We make harmless bets as to who will have the first the tomato, the largest, and the best harvest. Tomatoes are a big thing with us suburbanites. We've even taken it as far as to see who can grow them longer in the fall. Of course our landscaping has become quite an important task to us also. While the men obsess over their lawns, the women have more important things on our minds, like flowers.
Through the years we have accumulated and shared our gardening secrets. It is a race do to our short growing season. But so many aspects of growing veggies are the same no matter your location. Here we are passing on to you are successes and secrets of gardening. We hope you will enjoy this as much as we have creating it. We are in the process of creating a blog. We will post how the neighborhood is progressing, so watch and grow with us. We would love to have you in our cyber garden space. Please visit us at http://www.gardengroupies.com