How to Make your Own Herb Garden
Herbs are fun to grow. They are often quite hardy, smell delicious and can be added to food and drinks to make them extra tasty!
Whether you have a big garden or no garden at all you can grow and enjoy herbs too!
Finding Your Herbs
There are a few different ways you can source herbs:
Ask friends and family for cuttings of herbs from their gardens. Pop the cuttings into water until they reform their roots then plant them up.
Buy packets of seeds and sow them in small pots or seedling trays indoors until they are big enough to plant up.
Purchase punnets of herbs from the garden centre.
We tried all these methods and this is what we found…
Cuttings of mint and rosemary worked really well and grew rampantly
Sowing seeds was fun but did require more time, attention and care
Re-potting bought herbs was the fastest and easiest way… below is a DIY on how to make a herb garden using this method – have fun!
Making your Herb Garden…
What you need…
Potting mix
Plant pots (you can recycle any larger-sized plastic pots that plants have come in)
Old saucers/plates or plastic lids
Your choice of herbs
Trowel
Garden gloves
Fertilizer (optional)
What to do…
Choose a selection of herbs from your local garden centre.
Match up the pots with the saucers/plates or plastic lids.
Pop your gloves on, and use the trowel to fill just the bottom of the pots with potting mix.
Gently squeeze the plants from their punnets and tease out the roots.
Place them in their new pots and surround them with more potting mix and a bit of fertiliser (if using).
Water your plants as needed and enjoy!
Did you give it a go?
Send us a photo of your Herb Garden and tell us what you use your herbs for and you might find your contribution featured on the Upstart website, or in a future issue of Upstart magazine… AND win a prize!
How to use your herbalicious herbs
Here are a few of our favourite herbs and ideas of how they can be used…
Basil
Genovese is the classic basil. Other basil varieties are available but they look and taste quite different.
A few uses:
You can eat basil with feta cheese and tomato for a tasty snack, or use it to give flavour to pizzas, pasta, tomato and egg dishes.
Basil can also be used in herb butters, dressings and pesto.
Rosemary
Rosemary plant varieties can grow differently from each other, some grow upwards and bush out while others can trail or even cascade.
A few uses:
Rosemary makes roast dinners delicious.
Use whole sprigs of rosemary or chop it finely and mix it in with salt, pepper and garlic to season roast meats and vegetables. This mix is delicious with roast chicken or lamb, or in stuffings and sauces.
Parsley
The two most common types of parsley look quite different from each other.
Curly parsley has frilly looking rosette leaves and flat-leaf parsley has flat leaves and a bolder flavour.
A few uses:
Parsley is often a garnish to meals or used alongside other herbs in stews, sauces, soups or vegetable dishes.
Oregano
Oregano is easy to grow herb and so flavoursome. It is popular in Greek and Italian dishes. The plant produces tiny flowers which attract the bees.
A few uses:
Oregano is great in tomato dishes and perfect for seasoning pasta dishes… actually, it can be used to add flavour to almost any savoury dish!
It can also be used to treat respiratory conditions and can be used topically as an antiseptic.
Mint
There are lots of types of mint including a chocolate mint plant but the most common are peppermint and spearmint.
A few uses:
You can use mint with meats such as lamb, veal and pork. It’s also delicious with potatoes and desserts, and as a topping for mint chocolate recipes.
Mint can also be added to water, herbal teas or cold fruit drinks to give them a twist. It is known to help to soothe an upset tummy too.
Coriander
Coriander comes in lots of varieties and is considered one of the oldest medicinal plants in the world.
A few uses:
The leaves of coriander are used fresh in many dishes of Indian, Asian and South American cuisine.
The coriander flowers are also edible and have the same smell as the herb.
This makes them a delicious and beautiful garnish!