Garden Tips & Resources

Now that you have successfully planted the herbs in your home herb garden you can start to watch them bloom and flourish.  They are extremely useful in so many ways.  Using herbs from a home herb garden, however requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

Harvesting the mature plant is the first step in enjoying your home garden herbs.  Timing is a huge factor.  Wind and heat deprives the herbs of their essential oils.  Therefore, you should harvest your home herb garden in a mild and dry morning during the midsummer months.  Herbs produce little oil during the wet season.

You can harvest them in the morning when the dew has dried right before the flowers have opened.  You don’t have to uproot the entire plant to harvest the herbs.  Remember that you are only taking a small part of the plant for personal use.

You do not need to use the herbs that you are harvesting at the time that you pick them from your home herb garden.  You can preserve them to use later.   Just make sure to harvest no more than one third of the plant at a time.  The plant will need a good amount of foliage to re-grow well.  You should also check the plants for pests and damaged leaves before you harvest them.

Typically there are three ways that people preserve their herbs for later use after harvesting their home herb garden: drying, freezing, or preserving them in a medium like salt or vinegar.  In order to dry herbs you need to bundle six to twelve stems together and remove any foliage near the base of the stems.  You can secure the bundle with string.  Then hang them in a cool, dry place.

If you are looking to dry individual leaves you can place them on a screen or a rack.  Remember to turn them often in order for them to dry properly.  Some people have even employed artificial ways like dehydrators, ovens or microwaves to dry their herbs.

Freezing herbs is a fairly simple way to preserve herbs.  Cut the herbs into ¼ inch pieces and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper.  Once the herbs are frozen, you can place them together in a bag and store them in the freezer until use.

The third way to preserve your herbs is by using a growth medium.  Herbs like chopped mint, basil or tarragon, for example, can be preserved for several months using vinegar.  Or you can store them by alternately placing salt between layers of fresh herbs.  When completely dry, separate the brown herb from the salt then place it in an airtight container.

But people often would like to use herbs straight from their home herb garden.  Make sure to clean the herbs especially when using the fresh ones in your cooking.  The best way to wash fresh herbs is to place them in a bowl of cold water.  You can even use the sink to accommodate more of them.  Place about two tablespoons of salt in the water.  The salt in the water will drive away insects without damaging the plant.  Remove the herbs from the water and dry them in a salad spinner.

Different types of herbs in a home herb garden are used for many different uses.  Each different type of herb has their own list of instructions on how to use, harvest, and chop them.  Learn more about each type of herbs so you can use them accordingly.

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