How do I Grow and Harvest Culinary Herbs?
Growing herbs is really easy to do. From learning what to grow and how to harvest and cut them, watch and learn as lawn and garden expert, Amy Grisak, shares her favorite tips for growing and harvesting culinary herbs.
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Video Transcription
How to Decide on the Best Herbs for your Garden?
Hi, I'm Amy Grisak with North 40 Outfitters and today I'm
going to give you a few tips on what herbs to grow, how to take care of them
and how to cut them for use in your kitchen. Now, when it comes to herbs, we
have the world at our fingertips and the nice thing is, is so many of them love
these wonderful hot summers with lots of sunshine and absolutely thrive for us
during the season. Now, when you're looking at what herbs to grow in your
house, think about how you cook. Do love the taste of rosemary and using it on
meats and in breads? Or go for a basil, which is great on any salad. Of course,
parsley, which is another wonderful one that is good on any dish or in any
meal, because it's just so neutral. Or if you're a canner, you can also go for
something like dill, because it always seems like when you get canning, when
you're doing your pickles and things like that, it's really hard to find dill
in the grocery store. But when you're growing it in your garden, right
alongside your cucumbers, you are ready to go.
How to Take Care of Herbs?
Now with growing herbs, the easiest thing to remember is
they all love full sunshine. They love full sunshine, they love heat. You don't
want to water them too much, because they're a Mediterranean plant, at least
most of them, but you want to give them roughly a half an inch to three
quarters of an inch of water a week. Don't let them totally dry out. If they're
wilting on you, even in the garden, they need a little drink, but you don't
want to over water them either, because then they get a little fussy.Now I do
want to give you a little hint from my own experience over the years on how to
take care of mint. Now, mint is fabulous because we enjoy it in our iced teas
or adult beverages or in our cooking, but it can take over the garden if you
let it. One of the best ways to have mint at your fingertips without it
encroaching on everything else you're growing is to grow it in a container.
Choose a nice size container like this, put in a good potting soil. Use a
potting soil, don't go with the garden soil because you can introduce diseases
and just plant it in here just as you would in the garden. And that way it can
grow till its heart content and it's not going to escape and take over all its
neighbors.
How to Preserve your Herbs?
Now, the other thing, when you're growing herbs, you want to use them. I know it can seem hard to be harsh and to be cutting, but really cut them frequently during the summer and they're just going to keep coming back. Now, if things are growing too much and you can't use them all in one sitting, you can easily dry them by setting them out on racks or on paper towels or hanging them. Put a little rubber band around a bunch and hang it up in your kitchen so you can grab as you need it. Or with things like basil, which really benefits from frequent cutting and if can't eat enough during the salad, you can always freeze it. Put it in the food processor with maybe some garlic and a little bit of olive oil, blitz it up and freeze it in ice cube trays. And that way, when you want to make pesto, you just take it out, add the Parmesan and the pine nuts and you're ready to go.I highly recommend growing herbs, adding those to your garden. You have them right next to the vegetables, right next to the flowers and it just makes summertime complete. If you have any more questionings about gardening, be sure to stop by any of the North 40 Outfitters' locations or visit north40.com.