Planting Your Herb Garden

Whether you want to plant an herb garden for culinary purposes or to use as medicinal healing. You need to know how to first begin to plant your garden.

You need to decide if you want to do a small container garden or find a small piece of land in your yard to till up and use for your herb garden. When deciding to do a container garden you need to find a nice part sun and part shade area to place your container in. Container gardening also allows you to bring in your herb garden during bad storms and not worry about your plants drowning should you get hit by a bad rain storm.

Container Gardening:

Go to your local home garden store and look at the variety of containers, have your list of herbs that you want to plant so you know about how many containers you may need. When I use to do container gardening I would place about 4-5 herbs in one container at one time I had 6 containers, hence why I now use a space in my yard for my garden. Container gardening is great if you are just starting out or if you cannot plant in your yard or you live in an apartment.

Be sure to purchase planting soil for your containers as using soil from your yard is not porous enough to use in containers. I was just at our local garden store this spring and saw that they do sell organic planting soil, I have not used it but the bag stated that it was better for growing herbs and vegetables as there was no fertilizer in the planting soil. You do not want to use chemicals in your herb or vegetable garden as you will be eating these plants.

Once you have purchased your containers, soil and herbs you need to plant them as soon as possible as the soil the plants are planted in dry out quickly.

You want to place the plants about 6 inches apart so depending on the size of your container will depend on how many herbs you plant in each container.

Place the gardening soil in the container then place the plants still in their containers on the soil to determine how you want to plant them.

Use a sturdy shovel to dig about an inch or two deep into the soil and gently take the herb plant out of its container. Be sure to gently separate the roots before planting. Place a small amount of water into the hole and place the herb into the hole. Be sure to cover all the roots so none are showing. Then water again gently.

Once all your containers are planted set them out where you have already pre-determined you want them to be.

Be sure to water your herb garden, to check if they need water test the soil if it feels dry water, if its still moist check it again the next day.

Yard Garden:

Take a walk around your yard to see where you want to plant your herb garden. Determine how big you want the garden to be. Till the ground. You can do this either by using a hoe or by using a tiller. I do recommend a tiller as I have done both and after using a hoe my back hurt, but if you have no choice a hoe will do just as well.

Now you need to get on your hands and knees, I purchased a nice knee pad so that my knees didn't hurt kneeling in the dirt. You need to pick out all the huge chunks of grass, you can also take a garden rake and rake out all the tilled grass and weeds. Once you have that done take your herbs and place them in the spot you want to plant them. Remember to read the tags so you know just how far to place them apart so that they have room to grow.

When you are ready to plant be sure to have these items on hand to make the job easier:

Hand shovel
a container of water
a knee pad
your herbs
a notebook to write down where each herb is and what day you planted it

When you are planting the herbs be sure to plant them about 1-2 inches deep and add water to the hole before adding the herb. Be sure to gently break apart the roots and gently place the herb in the hole. Now take the dirt and cover all of the roots. Gently water again, the herbs will be in shock at first and may look droopy but don't worry they will spring back.

Since your herb garden is in the ground you will need to be sure to be on the lookout for pests and be sure to check them daily to see if they need water. Some insects are good for your plants for example ladybugs, praying mantis and bees.

Everyday write down in your notebook what you have done to your garden. Do research on your herbs and see how you can use them. Don't worry if at first your garden does not do well, once you learn how your soil is and the best places to grow your herbs it will become second nature.

Good luck with your herb garden.

Rebecca White is a mother to 3 boys ages 12, 10 and 4. She loves to grow herbs for cooking and medicinal uses. Rebecca owns http://www.medicinalherbguide.com where you can find many more tips and great articles on owning your own medicinal herb garden. Be sure to stop in to see books she recommends using and software that saves you time when recording your plants progress. Rebecca also owns http://www.supportformoms.com, http://www.experts4wahms.com. Gardening is Rebecca's hobby and passion.