Let’s Make Cilantro Grow

There’s a little bonus that comes with this herb. When we let our cilantro grow to maturity, we get a kind of two for one deal right from Mother Nature. Of course growing and harvesting cilantro leaves right in your kitchen is a rewarding, delicious and healthy (and easy) thing to give yourself and your family. But did you know that Coriander seeds come from the cilantro plant? Coriander is the exotic and delicious flavor in curries and many of our favorite foods from India, the islands and around the world.

Cilantro is an “annual” herb. An annual is a plant that sprouts, grows, flowers and dies in a single growing season. The best way to make sure you have a constant supply of cilantro is to plant two cilantro seeds every two weeks through the spring and early summer. This will ensure a constant supply for your recipes and salads.

Plant Cilantro. Let Cilantro Grow. Harvest Cilantro. It’s That Easy

Sow your cilantro into moist and well drained soil. Mix in some compost with your soil to keep the soil from drying too quickly after watering. When deciding a spot to plant, let your cilantro grow in full sun. Good southern or western sun is preferred by most of the herbs we grow in our herb gardens and it’s true for growing herbs in pots as well.

We are going to plant cilantro after the last frost in spring and it will take about seventy five days before we harvest the leaves. If we plan on harvesting the coriander seeds it will be one hundred days from planting.

Why the Different Names? Aren’t Cilantro and Coriander the Same Thing?

Well, yes, cilantro and coriander are from the same plant, but many cultures call both the herb and the seeds, “coriander.” Over here in the west, however, we call the leaf “cilantro” and we call the seeds “coriander.” That’s because we tend to differentiate between “herbs” and “spices.” So we call the leaves “herbs” and we call the edible roots and seeds of a herb plant the “spices.” While we’re at it, lets throw another name for cilantro into the mix. It is also known as Chinese parsley. You can see why, because the leaves are quite similar to parsley. Cilantro leaves are a broader and flatter.

Watching Our Cilantro Grow. Plant it for Both the Leaves and the Seeds

Cilantro uses

Cilantro leaves (the herb) is best used fresh and can be tossed into a salad, to season fish, and to add an exotic South and Central American flavor to your soups and stews. The herb leaves are tart and tangy.

Coriander uses

Coriander (the seeds of the cilantro plant) has an entirely different flavor to the leaves of its host plant, cilantro. Coriander is a sweeter scent, a bit of a citrus taste there, maybe a touch of lemon too. Coriander is used in a surprisingly varied menu. It is often added to cake and pastry ingredients, beads and cookies, but it is also mixed with cumin as an ingredient of our favorite curries.

I invite you to find out more about the truly amazing uses of herbs with my free mini-course where you’ll find:

Ancient Secrets of the Curing Herbs

How to Start an Herb Garden

Herb Garden Designs

And much more… I’ll see you there.

Your Home Herb Garden and How to Harvest and Preserve Herbs

You’ve planted and started your home herb garden. The herbs have grown and flourished. And you’re aware how useful they are. But maybe you’re not really sure how to actually use them. Well, to unlock and begin using herbs from a home herb garden, there’s some necessary, but rewarding work that needs to be done.

First, of course, we have to pick, or harvest our herb garden plants. But we have to pick them at the right time. This is so important. We don’t want our herbs too dry, or too wet when we harvest. We want to choose a nice gentle day in the middle of summer when there’s not much wind and the heat of the day has not kicked in. The essential oils in the herbs, can be lost if we harvest when it is too hot, windy or too wet. So, we choose a time in the morning when the dew has dried, before the flowers have opened, but before the heat of the day has arrived.

Now, when harvesting the home herb garden, we’re not going to pick our plant right out of the ground. What we want is some of the growth to use without killing the whole plant by pulling it out by the roots. When harvesting herb garden plants, we never want to remove more than 30% of the leaves or foliage during a harvest. Plants, and certainly our herbs, need the rest of their foliage to keep thriving, so we can harvest from the same plant again and again. Note: Just before harvesting, check for bugs and insects and any damaged leaves they may have caused.

After we harvest we can save what we’ve picked to use later when we’re ready. The most common ways we can preserve our herbs are: freezing, drying or keeping and preserving them in things like salt or vinegar.

Drying Herbs

Gather a dozen or so stems and tie them together at the bottom with string. Remove the herb leaves where you tie the bundle. Now, lets hang our bundle in a nice cool spot, and not in the direct sun.

Another way to dry our herbs is to remove the leaves and spread the leaves on a screen. We’ll turn them regularly to dry them evenly. For other methods for drying herbs like drying herbs in the oven etc, see our other articles on our site as well as much more information in our free 10 part email mini course.

Preserving Our Herbs by Freezing

First we’ll dice the herbs into ¼ inch pieces. We have a cookie sheet ready and we have lined it with wax paper. Lets put our herb leaves on the sheet and put them in the freezer. When the leaves are frozen, we simply transfer them into a bag and pop them back in the freezer until we are ready to use them.

Preserving Our Herbs by Placing Them in a Medium

We can add basil, tarragon or mint leaves to vinegar and cover our herbs. Our herbs will stay fresh in this solution for quite a few months.

Preserving Our Herbs With Salt

We can “sandwich” layers of our herb leaves between multiple layers of salt. When the leaves turn brown, and are dry, remove them and we’ll have a lovely flavored salt.

Preparing Our Freshly Picked Herbs From Our Own Home Herb Garden

We’re going to wash our fresh herbs in a bowl of cool water or the kitchen sink. We’ll add approximately 2 tablespoons of salt to the water. This will remove any bugs and organisms, but our herbs won’t be damaged. Now we’ll take the herbs from the water and dry them in a salad spinner.

There are a vast variety of herbs with many many different uses. Make sure to take the time to learn each herb’s characteristics, it’s proper use, and how the herbs from your home herb garden can be used for your full benefit, enjoyment and your good health.

Herb Garden Kits

Herb Garden Kits: Special Guest Article from author Michael Johsone

Two little herb garden kits played the unlikely role of getting me through my first year living away from home. I still remember it very clearly.

It was 1982 and I was 19. I had decided to try my luck in a huge city after living my whole life to that point in a very small town. I lived in a tiny dank apartment above a deli with almost no natural light. (The only windows were black with soot and facing into the alley.) I tried to tell myself my move and my new life in the city was an exciting adventure, but the truth is, I felt lost. And I was dirt poor.

My mother came to visit and for a few days and I showed her the big city. I wondered if she could tell that I was not exactly confident or optimistic about my life. She never did say anything about that, but on the last day of her visit, she left a little gift on the kitchen counter of my flat.

After she had gone, I opened the card that said, “When life gets the better of me, I plant something. Trust me. What you need are plants of your own. Herb garden kits made all the difference to me when I was alone. You’ll see. All my love – Mom.”

How to Start Herb Garden Plants for Beginners

Like you will find with most herb garden kits, my kits had:

a little tray

a variety of herb seeds

and a clear plastic dome.

(I must admit, sitting there reading the little instruction book about how to start an herb garden, I felt a little silly. I had moved to the big city to embrace and conquer whatever adulthood threw my way. But I felt more like a little kid opening a gift from his crazy aunt or something.)

But I did trust my mom’s instincts so I stuck with it. So I took the little packages of soil that were included in the kits and spread it in the trays. I opened the herb seeds and arranged them according to the different kinds of herbs. The seeds were very small and delicate and needed to be planted shallow… not too deep. So I made little rows and labeled them according to the type of herbs.

Of course, being a total herb garden beginner, I was bound to make a mistake. I knew enough to get some water for the little rows, but I filled a cup with tap water and like a bull in a china shop, I doused them. Flooding the tray and washing half the soil, seeds and labels all over the kitchen counter. Sigh.

I went back to the instruction book. Oh! I was supposed to give the soil a “gentle misting”. I thought, “What is misting? How does one “mist?” I went down to the hardware store and someone took pity on me and showed me to the garden section. I dug deep into my pockets and bought a $1.99 plant mister. Off I went to try again. This time all was well. I wasn’t sure what the clear plastic dome was for, but I snapped it over the tray and placed it on my window sill as directed.

A day or two went by before I remembered to check my herb garden kits. I was amazed to see that the puzzling little clear domes combined with the moisture I had added to the soil, had created a tiny little environment in there. Like a little world with it’s own little weather system. And… I guess that was really the beginning of my journey. I was hooked. And fascinated.

I found I was thinking about my herb garden kits all day and I began to rush home after work to check on it. Then, I began to stop into the library on my way home to read everything I could about keeping a healthy herb garden and their thousands of uses.

My herb garden kits contained culinary herbs and Italian herbs. Culinary herbs are herbs we use in the kitchen with cooking. But I soon learned, that there are hundreds of herb varieties:

international herbs

salsa herbs

german herbs

medicinal herbs

And so many more.

When my seedlings began to appear, I was so happy and excited. But then my mind raced. “Wait! What do I do now? I can’t cook!” So it was back to the library for me. This time I began to read everything I could about cooking with herbs. “I only have one pot!” I decided to call my mom. This was serious. “Mom, I can’t cook and .. and .. I don’t have any pots and pans… and did I say I can’t cook? I don’t think I have enough light in here for the herb garden kits.”

Mom began to laugh and said, “Slow down, honey. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. So you like your little herb garden kits I guess?” she said with a chuckle.

A week later, I got a large delivery from my mother. A set of kitchen ware, and a little grow light. My little herb garden was saved.

That was many years ago. I had moved to the city to be a captain of industry and adventure. Instead, I moved back to the country and became a herb garden enthusiast and author. Life is funny. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.

________________________________

Some Thoughts From Melanie Stark About Herbs and Growing

I love Michael’s story! It illustrates how the best things in life are right under our noses. Herb gardening kits are a way of including our ever more distracted kids, teenagers and families in a shared activity and instilling a sense of responsibility for the life they create in the garden. I urge you to get your herb garden started with your kids and those close to you. Or those you wish were closer to you. It’s a little thing with big importance. As Michael’s Mom said… trust me.

Here’s a list of things you need to know to get started. Please read my other articles here for more information and make sure to sign up for my free mini-course.

Herb garden kits are a great way to get started and you can grow your herbs indoors all year long.

A kit is an environment that you can control. Garden pests and weather are not issues.

Delicious herbs for cooking will be right at your fingertips. Oregano, thyme, coriander, mint, anise etc.

A herb kit will help you gain confidence so you can graduate to starting an outdoor herb garden, as well as transplanting herbs and learning which herbs never want to be transplanted.

Learn how to freeze or dry your herbs to keep them fresh and useful for months.

By starting with a little indoor herb garden, and starting with my mini course, you WILL be successful in growing happy and healthy herbs every time.

Melanie’s Herbs and Growing Tips. Introduction to Herb Gardening

Think about herbs. Think about herbs AND growing herbs yourself. Now lets travel back in time. Way back. As far back as early biblical passages will take us. And back further to humanity’s ancient civilizations in Egypt and China. On each of our stops on our travels through time, herbs are mentioned for their abilities to enhance food as well as the use of herbs to cure and sooth injury and sickness.

Experienced gardeners have long known the vast variety of beneficial uses of herbs. Their presence in the kitchen takes common types of food and transforms them into something delicious and even exotic. And who really needs chemical air fresheners when an herb potpourri, dry in a bowl, or simmered gently on the stove, soothes our frayed nerves and transforms a stuffy home into a magical forest of scents and good memories.

Herbs and Growing the Workhorses of Our Garden

Herbs are the workhorses of our outdoor and indoor gardens. Why? Because well chosen herbs placed alongside our delicate plants and flowers, control pests that would otherwise devour our prized crops and blooms.

So, you can see that whether herb gardens are grown for their many health benefits, the magic they bring to your recipes, or just for their beauty grown in containers indoors, herbs have a place in all our lives.

Herb Garden How To: Growing Herbs 101

Indoor herb gardens:

Using herbs and growing them right in the kitchen, the herbs are known as Culinary Herbs. But the foliage and flowers on many herbs make them perfect as visual accents in our homes. Even dried, a tied bunch of herbs make a long lasting bouquet for your living room, guest room or to personalize a washroom or even to brighten and freshen the air in the laundry room.

Our Outdoor Herb Garden

Transplanting, or seeding herbs and growing them outdoors, we will only need a small space for an outdoor herb plot. A four by six feet area would be more than enough to provide a small family’s herbal needs for a whole year.

“Annuals” and “perennials” are common terms you will hear from gardeners. Annuals are plants that have a single season life time, and then a new plant has to be planted the following season. A perennial is a plant that can have an indefinite life span and grows and flowers time and again with each passing year. This is true with herbs as well. Some are annuals and some are perennial herbs. Both types should be given well drained soil that isn’t overly heavy or compressed. If we find that our herbs are suffering from heavy, wet soil, adding an organic compost to the soil will help our herbs breathe and drain properly again.

Planting herbs and growing them outdoors, you will find they are naturally resistant to most common plant diseases. And although most herbs love to have lots of sun, sometimes in overly dry conditions the spider mites can attack. Other infestations like aphids can show up on herbs such as fennel, dill, anise and caraway. A mild soap solution can be spritzed on our herbs to deal with aphids especially. Mint can have problems with “rust.” But fresh soil and good drainage will more often than not prevent all these, and give us healthy herbs.

Get the Kids and Teenagers Involved in Herb Gardening

Starting herbs and growing them indoors from seeds is perhaps the most rewarding way of introducing herbs to our families. Grown from seeds, herbs can be an activity every family member can be part of. It might even get the kids off the couch and away from their computers to care for the tiny seedlings they perhaps planted themselves. They can learn the pride and respect of nature that can only come from giving life and protecting a plant that is grown from a single seed. We can all learn (or be reminded) that all life has a purpose, and herbs have thousands of purposes!

Our Home Herb Garden

Seeds can be started indoors in early spring or very late winter. We can use a shallow seed tray or a low pot. Herbs do not have a deep root system so we’ll plant our seeds shallow in a nice light, well drained soil to get them started. Here’s a tip that is generally true: “the smaller and more delicate the seed, the shallower it should be planted.”

Our herbs and growing indoor seedlings can be transplanted into our outdoor herb garden in the spring. Even though growing herbs in pots works for almost all herbs, some herbs actually just don’t like to be transplanted. What are they? Coriander, Dill, Anise, Fennel would much rather be planted straight into our outdoor herb garden.

I Beg Your Pardon, I Really DO Promise You a Herb Garden

I can promise you that you can grow healthy herbs and improve your life and health by doing so, but there’s actually quite a lot you need to understand about herbs. Our articles here will give you a flying start and we hope to take you the rest of the way with our free mini-course. I’ll see you on the next page. Have Fun!

~ Melanie ~

Growing Herbs In Pots. Melanie’s Indoor Herb Gardens for Beginners

When growing herbs in pots, hanging baskets, window boxes or other containers of our choice, we will offer them the same care that we would when we grow them outdoors in the garden.

Like all plants our herbs are going to need three basic things to thrive. What are they? Sunlight, good soil and water, of course. Southern or western sun exposure is the first and most important requirement for our herbs grown indoors or outside in the garden for that matter. For our indoor growing of herbs, we’ll put them in or near a window facing that good southern or western sun. Although there are a couple of exceptions, most of the herbs we are going to grow need a sunny spot in the house. Maybe in the kitchen or another room we know that lets the sun in.

In case we just don’t have that good sunny location inside, sometimes we herb growers may have to help our herbs, with a little man-made light. Fluorescent or a grow light will do the trick.

Type of Soil for Growing Herbs in Pots:

We’re going to use a nice clean and sterilized potting soil, but we are going to make sure it is well drained. To do this, here’s a little soil recipe for our herbs grown in containers: 2 parts potting soil and 1 part sand. We want to use course sand or perlite. Nothing too fine. And one more thing, like many of our indoor plants, we are going to put an inch of gravel at the bottom of the pot. This is important to make sure we have good drainage. Without it, our soil can stay too damp and we can accidentally introduce mold and root rot to our potted herbs. Optional: Adding a teaspoon of lime can make sure the soil isn’t too acidic for our herbs.

How Much Water Do Herbs Need?

Misting plants regularly is important for growing herbs in pots because it mimics the humidity that our outdoor plants enjoy. The air in our houses is often much dryer so misting is essential. Generally speaking, our herbs grown in containers are going to need to be watered more often than herbs grown outdoors in the garden. But again, we can’t soak the roots and cause the herbs to be unhealthy or harmed by fungus.

Like our other plants, herbs can be “annuals” or “perennials”. The annuals are fine with spending their whole season indoors. Perennials on the other hand really appreciate it if they can spend the summer outside. When we are growing herbs in pots, we ave to make sure, to bring them inside before the first frost. We don’t want them to lose any of their foliage unnecessarily. Here’s an exception to this rule however: Tarragon, Chives and Mint actually react to a bit of frost, by growing even stronger and fresher foliage.

We can grow all our herbs successfully indoors in containers. But mint in particular definitely should be grown in a container or pot, because it is invasive in the garden and can take over the whole garden if we’re not careful. So we might as well grow mint indoors because when growing kitchen herbs, we get the added pleasure of reaching over and snapping off a few leaves to use as we’re cooking.

Indoor Herb Growing Tips:

When growing herbs in pots, we should also give our herbs a periodic feeding and we should re-pot them every year to make sure the soil is fresh and remains nutritious.
And remember, we have to replant “annuals” every year because they only live for the one growing season and the perennials have to come indoors for the cold winter.

Lastly, use your herbs! Harvest and pick foliage occasionally because this not only will be a benefit to you, it will cause the herbs to be happier and healthier with thicker stronger growth.

So we’re going to use our herbs in our recipes, and we’ll look back at our article about how to dry and preserve them and… we’ll share them with our friends. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Herb Garden Plants – Growing and Using Your Annual, Perennial and Biennial Herbs

Like all our favorite plants in the garden or in pots indoors, herb garden plants are either “annuals”, “perennials” or “biennials”.

An “annual herb” is an herb that grows from seed, sprouts, and flowers and dies in a single season.

A “perennial herb” is an herb that lives and blooms year after year.

A “biennial herb” is one that takes two full years to complete it’s growth and flowering before dying .

For specific herbs and how they are classified, I invite you to sign up for my free mini-course. For this article, I’ll concentrate on giving you a basic understanding of herb garden plants and their many, many beneficial uses.

Annual Herbs: Start Herb Garden Plants After Jack Frost’s Last Visit

For those of you (like me) who live in an area with four full seasons, you know that we are ever watchful for the first frost and the last frost of the season. Annual herbs, that only live for one growing season, will not survive in winter or even the chance of an overnight frost. Some of our favorite annual herb garden plants include:

basil

cilantro

and summer savory

For our annuals we will need to plant the herbs from a seed or transplant a young plant every year, after any threat of frost. I like to plant my annuals in a separate “kitchen garden” with our vegetables or growing herbs in pots indoors is ideal for use in our cooking. After the growing season, the earth is replaced or turned (in the garden) and we begin again the next spring.

Perennial Herbs: Here to Stay

When we are designing a garden that will be a permanent feature of our yards, we may want to plant perennial herbs that won’t need to be dug out every fall. This will save you from disturbing your other shrubs, shoots and root systems in your garden as they all grow and mature year after year. Perennial herbs like:

winter savory

sage

are fine for the cold temperatures of winter and make lovely (and useful!) members of your perennial gardens.

Biennial herbs: Plant Me Directly Outside But I Can Only Stay for a While.

Biennial herb garden plants spend the first year of their lives sprouting and forming their leaves. They flower in their second year of life, then “go to seed.” and die.

I have created a border garden just for my biennial herbs, alongside a path through my property. I rotate the sowing of my biennial herb seeds so there are always mature herbs when I need to harvest some growth.

Some of our favorite biennial herbs include:

parsley

angelica

caraway

These biennial herb garden plants should not be started in a pot or container and then transplanted. They need to be planted directly into the garden in late spring.

Preparing the Soil: How to Plant Herb Garden Plants:

When soil is first turned, it is often in clumps and stuck together due to moisture and fine roots and clay content. What we want to do is break up the clumps and rake it with a stiff rake until we create a finer texture that will fall between your fingers.

We’re ready to wet the soil lightly, and plant our herb seeds. Our herb garden seeds want to be planted shallow. Pat the soil over the seeds to make the soil firmer. Make sure you water the soil regularly with a light spray to help the herb seeds germinate.

The Herbs Under Your Nose in Your Spice Rack, But Why You Should Really Be Growing Fresh Herbs

Many of you tell me, “I don’t know a thing about herbs.” Of course you do! You are using them all the time. The little dried flakes you are buying may not look like herbs, but they began their journey in a garden before they ended up in your sauces, garnishes and potpourri.

The herbs in your kitchen, are known as Culinary Herbs and I know you love them. But wait until you taste them when they are fresh from your indoor or outdoor herb garden.

Here are just some of the Culinary Herb Garden Plants you can look forward to:

basil

thyme

summer savory

chives

marjoram

parsley

Aromatic Herbs

Aromatic herbs can be cut and dried to make amazing and very long lasting potpourri. Aromatic herbs are known for their pleasing and calming scents. Why would we want to spray chemical air fresheners when we have herbs like lavender, rosemary, lemon verbena, mint and lavage?

Medicinal Herbs: An Basic Overview. More Information in the Free Mini-Course >>>>

As you can guess, Medicinal Herbs are herbs used in the treatment, easing and curing of injury and disease. Plants and herbs are present in many of the most high tech and modern medicines. And there are new uses being discovered everyday.

But it’s with a word of caution I tell you this. Just because a medicine has the word “herbal” in it, does not make it automatically safe to put in your body. So please be careful to not be fooled by the newest “herbal supplement” or “herbal cure.” It is always best to research any kind of medicine. You only have one body, so don’t experiment on it. Instead, you should sign up for my free mini-course for much more information about exciting uses of medicinal and curing herbs.

Enough With the Herb Categories. Many Herbs Have Multiple Uses.

I find many of the herb garden plants we have growing on our property are just as beautiful as my so called “ornamental” shrubs and flowering plants. The herb, Borage, rivals any of my most lovely flowering shrubs with its amazing blue blooms. Chicory is another of my favorite “blues” in the garden.

Drying your herbs is something we go into some detail on this site. Picking, drying and tying an herb bouquet is a thing of beauty and the scent lasts for ages! I’m sorry, but my house is the best smelling house in the neighborhood. And the smells (and the memories) these scents create, are real. No fake chemical scents are necessary.

*(Speaking of harmful chemicals, what about pesticides? Did you know that many herb garden plants keep your garden naturally pest free? No chemicals necessary. It’s true. This is something our grand parents and great grand parents knew. Mint is a good example.)

Some of the other herbs we use for dry bouquets and potpourri are:

Mint

Valerian

Echinacea

So whether we’re cooking, making herbal tea, herbal soaps, herbal bouquets and potpourri, you can see that the uses for herb garden plants are almost endless.

Make sure to sign up for my free mini-course and for those of you who purchase my book, I’m going to throw in a free bonus book about easy ways to make money with herbs.

Until then, I’ll see you on the next page >>>>>>>>>>>>>