Chicken Herb Recipes

They say that the best way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. So there’s no better way to show you just what an incredible difference your home herb garden will make in your life, energy and health than if I show you a fresh herb recipe or two (or three). These are simple and healthy, but the flavor is five star. With the simple herbs and growing techniques in my free course these recipes become truly remarkable. I guarantee my system will have you growing herbs that will get people talking.

Let’s start with simple chicken herb recipes.

Recipe 1. Melanie’s Baked Herb Chicken

¼ cup unsalted butter or margarine
¼ cup whole wheat all purpose flour
1 tbsp dried thyme or 3 tbsp of fresh thyme * dry herbs conversion tip: One tsp of dry herbs equals One tbsp of fresh herbs
1 tbsp of garlic salt
½ tsp of coarse ground pepper

• Melt butter or margarine in the microwave for 1 minute and combine in mixing bowl with the flour, thyme, garlic salt, and pepper.

• Mix together into a smooth paste

• Place fresh full chicken on baking or roasting pan

• Using the back of a wooden spoon or spatula, spead your butter herb paste over the entire outside of chicken

• For 2-3 pound bird, place in oven at 350 degrees and cook for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. *Because oven temperatures vary so much I like to use a digital meat thermometer. In this case, remove chicken when core bird temperature reaches 185 degrees.

The chicken will have the most delicious light crust covering the outside.

Recipe 2. Melanie’s Mediterranean Chicken Stir Fry

Cut 2 or 3 boneless chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs into 2 inch strips and put aside
Cut 5 or 6 pitted black olives into slices and put aside

• Pour 3 or 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a room temperature frying pan or wok

• Add 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp basil, and 1 tsp oregano and ½ tsp curry powder to the oil

• Stir the herbs and spices and oil and place on low-medium heat.

• Add the sliced black olives to the hot pan or wok and sautee for 3 minutes

• Add the sliced chicken and stir fry and turn occasionally for 6 to 8 minutes or until chicken is white throughout upon cutting

• Serve over whole grain rice with a vegetable.

Did I say I would give you three Chicken Herb Recipes? Ok, I did. Here’s a really good one that is really simple but looks like something a chef prepared for you. If you grow the type of incrdeible herbs that I know you can with my herbs and growing secrets, you won’t believe how these recipes will taste.

Recipe 3. Melanie’s Herb and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Thighs

Six rinsed boneless chicken thighs
5 well minced mushrooms (any kind you like)
5 pitted black olives
¼ cup of feta cheese
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil or sometimes I use sesame oil
1 tbsp of oregano (see dry herbs conversion to fresh herbs quantities at top of page)
1 tbsp of thyme
1 tbsp curry powder
1tbsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper (use this only if you like spicy food)
1 well minced garlic clove
1 cup of well minced baby spinach

• Blend extra virgin olive oil, curry powder, oregano, thyme, pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic (minced) into mixing bowl and stir until blended and the herbs are saturated.

• Transfer mixture into a glazed ceramic or a glass baking dish. Spread the mixture so it coats the entire bottom of baking dish.

• Take the chicken thighs and roll each one of them out flat on a separate plate.

• Take one chicken thigh at a time and drag it through the oil, herbs and spice mixture in baking dish making sure to do this to both sides. Lay the thighs flat in the baking dish.

• To make the stuffing you’ll be using, take your minced spinach, feta cheese (make sure it’s crumbled into small pieces), mushrooms, black olives, into separate bowl and toss them until they are well mixed.

• Grab a handful of the spinach, feta, mushrooms and black olives stuffing and put a good amount on each of your chicken thighs.

• Roll up each thigh so that it surrounds your stuffing. You can use tooth picks or butcher’s string to hold the thighs closed if they don’t behave)

• Place the baking dish and stuffed thighs into a 375 degree oven. Bake for 30 or 40 minutes. Because ovens vary, make sure to check that the chicken is white all the way through. If you are using a meat thermometer, the chicken is done at 180 – 185 degrees Farenheit.

• Serve with a salad or rice and vegetable.

These three chicken herb recipes, are good even with store bought herbs. But the difference is truly astounding with your own fresh herbs. I can’t even stress this enough. It’s that jaw dropping. It’s also hard to estimate just how healthy food like this is using fresh herbs. Herbs have powerful and mysterious properties and there are profound herbal health benefits being discovered seemingly every month.

Do You Have Chicken Herb Recipes You’d Like to Share With Us?

If there’s one thing that we all love, it’s hearing from our readers. And I know our visitors love to see feedback from other visitors to the site. If you would like to share your experiences with herb gardening, and how you are using your herbs, or let us know how it’s going with my free mini-course or eBook, just click the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page. We’d love to publish you right here at HerbsAndGrowingSecrets.com

Talk soon!

Melanie.

What Role Can a Certain Diet Herbal Pill Play in Losing Weight?

Dear friends, time and time again, science has turned to this planet’s plant species for new discoveries to improve the quality of our lives, and often even cure, our most stubborn health issues. Therefore, it won’t be surprising to you that a herbal weight loss pill, made entirely of some of this world’s wondrous plant life, can help turn the tide against the dangerous epidemic of obesity we are faced with today.

Now the term, diet herbal pill, may have you picturing herbs like basil, oregano and thyme. But in this case, the word herb is used in the context of the broader meaning of the word “herbaceous” whose definition is “characteristic of a non-woody herb or plant part.” So I’d like to discuss the role a certain herbal weight loss pill can play in regaining control of your life if you are overweight, rapidly losing energy, health and vitality.

Convincing Your Body to Lose Weight and Why Weight Loss Can Be Like an Argument With Your Body

In many ways, our effort to lose weight is like an argument with our bodies. You start the argument perhaps by eating less. All too often, your body matches your argument by deciding something must be wrong and responds by actually “protecting” the fat it has grown used to. You argue back, by eating even less. But now the body has lost all reason and like most arguments that go wrong, begins to really panic, convinced there is famine and starvation just around the corner. You and your body are now in a full fledged fight.

Does this fight with your body sound familiar? You must also know how this fight all too often turns out. You get exhausted and discouraged and give up the weight loss fight, convinced you will never win. And you’d be right. Approaching weight loss in this way will not work. You cannot win if you fight the fat in this way. “Well then what can I do? Is it an unwinnable battle of the bulge?”

Don’t Fight Your Body. Eating Better Food and a Diet Herbal Pill That Works With Your Body

The secret is actually simple. We have to “convince” our bodies that what we are doing to lose weight is good for us and that you are still there to protect it. How do we convince our bodies to be our partner in weight loss? I like to tell people that they should think of their body as an exotic creature. You know, no sudden moves and no loud noises, or it will bite back! With that in mind here’s how we will begin convincing our body to trust us:

• No fasting or sudden decreases in food intake (eating)

• No dangerous and sudden increase in overly strenuous exercise

• No dangerous diet drugs

• Do not insult the body (harsh laxatives or liquid only diets)

Fucothin and Your Simple Changes Leads Your Body to a “New State of Normal”

Herbal diet pill Fucothin

What we want to do is lead our body by the hand and get it to naturally kick start its metabolism. Metabolism is like the rate that an engine is working in a car. Right now, as we sit at the computers and televisions in our lives, our metabolisms are on Idle, Neutral or worse, “Park”.

What we want to do is gently rev our engines (our metabolism) until we and our bodies reach a “new state of normal”. The first part of reaching your new state of normal, is all up to you. These will be your simple but powerful first steps:

• Write down everything you are likely to eat in a typical week. Absolutely everything. This is your private list, so be totally honest with yourself.

• Organize your list into two columns and label them Good and Bad. You may be asking, “What’s Good and what’s Bad?”

We are keeping this list really simple, so target the foods you know you shouldn’t be eating. For example, boiled or mashed potatoes would start out in the Good column, but chips and french fried potatoes would be in the Bad column.
Keep going and move the muffins, donuts, cakes, cookies, deep fried chicken, dips, into the Bad column.

Ok, for now that’s it. This is the beginning, and at this point the little diet herbal pill, Fucothin, can be added to your “new state of normal.” Combined with you removing the absolute worst foods on your list, Fucothin herbal slimming pills, will now not only begin to help breakdown the fat on your body, but it also begins to gently rev your metabolism. A higher metabolism, burns more calories than a metabolism stuck in neutral. This is a good thing, because it means right from day one, and with no real effort on your part, your body has ramped up to the next level and is naturally beginning to awaken and burn through more of your extra weight and calorie intake.

Feeling Better? Keep it Up and Gently Move to Your “Next, New State of Normal”

With only the simple act of removing only the absolute worst of your food from your diet, and your three times a day addition of Fucothin, you will notice very soon that your new state of normal feels pretty darn good. More energy, and a better mood because you will see and feel that this is going to work.

Armed with this more hopeful attitude, go back to your list and polish it a bit.

• The second list starts by replacing white breads, bagels and rolls with whole grain versions. Get the white flour out of your food choices. It’s no big deal, so just do it. White flour is just short of being white sugar. It’s a bad carbohydrate that transforms into high calorie sugars almost instantly when you are digesting it. Whole grains are complex carbohydrates and along with being more nutritious, they naturally rev your metabolism, because they take more effort for your body to digest them.

• Replace the fatty meats on your menu with leaner versions. Again, no big deal, so just do it. Try to eat chicken breasts instad of legs and thighs. However, you can make your chicken thighs and legs leaner by simply pulling the skin off before cooking. Under the skin, just rinse away the visible fat. Remove the fat from your steaks and choose leaner cuts. Get rid of the pork bacon and sausages. If you want, you can replace them with lean ham.

• Replace your white rice with whole grain rice. No big deal, it tastes better anyway, so just do it.

Ok, for now that’s it. Except now you will add just a bit of natural extra movement to your day. For example, if you ride the elevator at work, get off one floor short of your floor and take the stairs for one flight. Park the car deliberately a little further from the store and walk over. While you are at it, take slightly longer steps when you are walking. Nothing too awkward or silly, just a slightly longer stride.
Underneath what you ware doing, the diet herbal pill, Fucothin, is still working away. Except now it’s getting even more effective, because you are working along with it.

You’re starting to actually feel good again aren’t you? Welcome to your New State of Normal.

You see, feeling “normal” is important because it means you won’t snap back into your worst habits. Why would you? That’s right, because if we feel normal and aren’t stressed by the way we are living, we are way less likely to introduce harmful habits back into our routines.

At this point your metabolism is humming again because of you and Fucothin which has been quietly taking your efforts and ramping them up and making them twice as effective. It’s called the Thermogenic Effect and it is what Fucothin is known for. It has been proven to naturally increase your metabolism and therefore burn excess calories. Your only job is to keep feeling better and with more energy. As your energy increases, just keep repeating the steps above and keep adding healthier foods and removing the more fatty ones. Be creative and add gradually even more physical movement. Have fun with it. Don’t buy equipment. This should be enjoyable, so grab one of your kids and lift them up and down a few times every day. (Remember laughter burns calories too.)

The All Natural, Totally Plant Derived Diet Herbal Pill

Fucothin by Garden of Life is absolutely natural. There isn’t one artificial ingredient. No weird added colors and no chemical preservatives. Nothing. Aside from the active plant and herbal ingredients, the only other ingredients are gelatin, extra virgin olive oil, glycerin and purified water.

For more information and ordering with a special Fucothin coupon, click here for the Vitabase website.

* Here’s something to add to your food list we made above. It’s called Garden of Life Perfect Meal. It works as an effective partner to Fucothin. Perfect Meal is an all natural, high fibre and protein drink that comes in Creamy Vanilla and Milk Chocolate flavors. Perfect Meal natually helps you feel full, so you are less tempted to fill up with extra food during the day. Click here for more of Perfect Meal’s benefits.

Talk soon!

Melanie.

P.S. Remember, if you follow my simple steps in my free mini-course, and use the most flavorful and fastest growing herbs from your home herb garden, the food list above becomes easy. I’d like to help you achieve more energy and the best health of your life.

I’ve been thinking that I should add some recipes using fresh herbs, because throughout our site, we mention the joys of growing kitchen herbs. But I want you to really get excited by your new herb garden by showing you how to really use herbs in the kitchen.

Adding herbs to your cooking, will take the simplest of your dishes and instantly get people asking all your favorite questions. Questions like, “Is this a new recipe?” “What’s in this? It’s so good.” “Could you show me how to make this? You are such a good cook.”

That last comment is my personal favorite. Let’s make two things clear. We’re not just talking about fresh herbs and how they will transform your food and diet in general, we’re also talking about the herbs from your garden that you dry and preserve as well. Secondly, not all herbs are the same. It is possible to have remarkably better herbs than you’ve had before. More flavorful, healthier, bigger and faster growing than any you’ve tried.

That is what this site is all about and what it will do for your home herb garden. In a nutshell, you will never want to try recipes using fresh herbs unless you are using the type of herbs you will grow if you follow my free mini-courses and follow the simple steps in my book, “Sun, Water, Earth & Herbs – A Guide to the Magic World of Herb Gardening.” The only problem with that is, your friends will not want any other herbs except yours either. You are going to have to get used to their calls and drop-ins asking for your amazing herbs.

We’ve Added Simple and Delicious Recipes Using Fresh Herbs

• Chicken Herb Recipes

• Salmon Herb Recipe

• Butter Herb Recipe

I’ve chosen these three recipes to add to our site for a good reason. These recipes can be transferred and used with many different meats as well as vegetarian recipes. Herbs are like that. Give them a dish, any dish, and they react perfectly to match and compliment the flavors of that dish.

I hope you’re excited to really see what your herbs can do in the kitchen. You won’t be disappointed, and your cooking will never be the same. If you haven’t started growing fresh herbs following my guide, there’s no time like the present. With my steps, you will have fresh, flavorful, healthy herbs that grow bigger and faster so that you will have your own truly amazing herbs in no time.

I’ll see you on the Fresh (and dried) Herbs Recipes pages.

Talk soon!

Melanie

I’ll start by giving you a couple of things to consider before you plant.

• Are you going to have an area devoted just to your herbs, or would you like to combine them with other shrubs, flowers or vegetables?

• Are you interested in growing kitchen herbs or medicinal herbs or both?

• Have you read our information on herb garden design tips in our free mini-course or eBook?

After you have a good idea what herbs you want to grow,  and where you want to grow them, that’s the time to consider how to grow herbs that are healthy and stuffed with nutrients, overflowing with beautiful scents and full of flavor. And with just a few simple, but very important steps, this is exactly what you can expect.

Simple Soil Recipe for All the Herbs in Your Garden

Although the variety and characteristics of herbs is vast, they all love a very simple recipe for the soil that will be their home. Start herb garden plants with the following simple soil recipe, and they will reward you time and time again.

• 3 parts garden soil or top soil from the plant nursery

• 1 part peat moss, compost, or aged horse, cow or sheep manure

• 1 part sand. Make sure the sand is rinsed and desalinated (no salt) if it is from the beach.

Watering Your Herbs, But Be Careful

Like all plants, herbs need clean water to thrive. But herb garden plants must not have too much water. It is actually better to err on the side of too little water than it is to give herbs too much water. Whether your herbs are planted outside or inside in pots, the soil must be well drained. There is more information in our free mini-course regarding creating a well-drained environment for your herbs, but for now, it is important to remember not to keep the soil too moist.

Your Herbs Live for the Light

For your outdoor herb garden, plant your herbs facing a southern or western exposure. Make sure the herbs are not covered by the broad skirts of other shrubs. This can cause an overly shady and too moist an environment for the herbs to be truly happy.

Perhaps you don’t have a yard or a suitable outdoor spot to start a herb garden. That’s fine, because indoor herbs are just as happy with a sunny windowsill or certain types of man made light. Fluorescent light, grow lights or special high output lights will do the trick in not only starting your herbs, but helping them grow to maturity and vitality. I have much more information on herb garden lighting in my mini-course as well as my book, “Sun, Water, Earth & Herbs: A Guide to the Magic World of Herb Gardening.”

Contact Us With Your Herb Garden Pictures, Recipes and Tips

Our visitors love to see each others’ pictures and hear about each others’ experiences. Please click on the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the page and we’ll tell you right away how you can share your pictures and stories and publish them right here.

Talk soon!

Melanie

However, we may not have access to our fresh herbs after the outdoor growing season ends. What we want is to experience the amazing and powerful benefits of our herb garden, all year long. We are going to have to preserve our fresh herbs and lock in those nutrients. Many herbs will stay fresh and useful this way for up to a year. Once you know how to properly preserve your herbs, combined with my herb gardening steps contained in the information on this site, you will truly have made “herb health” a full partner in your new healthy life.

From Fresh to Dry Herbs – Drying Herbs From Cuttings

This is how dry herbs are achieved in the ancient way. (It is also my favorite way.)

• Cut the herbs low on the stalks with pruning shears or scissors

• Remove the lowest leaves to create room for tying the herbs

• Using string, tie the bundle low on the stalks

• Hang the bundle of herbs upside down in a cool dry place

• When fully dry, remove the leaves and transfer them into a glass or ceramic container that has a lid or cap

Melanie’s note: It is best if the herb container is not made of clear glass. The herbs will last longer if they are away from the light. Also, make sure the container has a good, tight lid or cap. We want as little air in the container as possible. You may also put a cotton ball on top of the herbs to keep out air before closing the container.

Drying Herbs in Oven

To accelerate the process, the drying herbs in oven method is often used.

• After cutting multiple stalks of herbs, lay them out flat on a baking sheet

• Place the baking sheet in the oven and turn on at a low heat setting

• Turn the herbs regularly and check for progress by checking a few individual leaves

• When herbs are dried evenly, remove sheet from oven

• Remove and transfer the leaves to a container as described above

Melanie’s note: Many ovens do not heat evenly and are a lot hotter than people realize. For this reason, I prefer the natural drying of herbs. But if you are careful, the drying herbs in oven method will work fine and it is certainly a much faster method.

Drying herbs in a dehydrator is another fast and effective method. Specifically we are talking about a produce dehydrator used for vegetables. It is a small kitchen countertop appliance that can be purchased at most kitchen supply stores.

Drying herbs costs pennies and over the course of an entire year, using your own herbs in this way, can save hundreds of dollars compared to expensive store bought dry herbs. Our herbs will also be much healthier and more flavorful.

For more tips on how dry herbs are created at home to preserve your home herb garden treasures, and much more, make sure to sign up for my free 10 part email mini-course. It includes information on preserving herbs in salt, as well as herb tinctures, which is a liquid or medium for creating and preserving your medicinal herbs.

We also discuss how dry herbs can rid your life of harmful chemicals our modern lives have introduced to our homes. Our grandparents didn’t need these chemicals, so why should we risk our health with them?

See you in the mini-course! Talk soon,

Melanie

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.

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.

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.

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 ~

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.