How to Grow Herbs From Seed - only got a small space ? No problem
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| Parsley from seed in the background, Betony in the left hand side and seeds sown in the rows in a small home garden bed. |
If you cook you need to get your hands on fresh herbs, the fresher the better and growing your own herbs from seeds is so easy and you will get such a buzz out of using your own freshly picked herbs and you can have an ever increasing supply that will never die out on your kitchen bench.
If you want to know how to grow herbs in small spaces click here
Its pretty easy. You can grow your herbs in the ground or in pots. If you choose pots just add drainage in the bottom using old broken up bricks, old broken pieces of flower pots, stones then fill up the pot with potting mix. Do not use garden soil if you can help it or you will get a big mud pie when it dries out and your herbs will die. If you have light, loose soil with lots of aeration you might be able to get away with it but why make things harder for yourself ?
If in the ground, prepare your ground first before you get your herb seeds. The garden in this photo has already been prepared and used for other crops so the soil is nice and airy. Herbs usually like the heat and like well drained soil. If you have only a small space or even a tiny space you can still grow herbs, just a tiny patch is all you need to get started.
Use fresh seed - if its old it may not germinate. Use seed raising mix as it is especially designed to help seeds germinate and it is looser which is why garden soil may not be the best thing to use. I put sawdust or something similar on top but this is normally only to mark the rows so not necessary.
Basically keep them damp and wait for the results, herb scissors at the ready - it really is that simple.
More info on growing your own herbs from seed here
Home grown Galangal in hydroponic unit
We grew this galangal
in a hydroponic unit
- the kind that just slowly drips the solution into the pots - it grew so well that when we moved it and forgot about it it still kept on growing without the solution and we had to cut it all out of the pot in a tangled mass - no need to use solution on galangal 
it will grow easily anywhere but if you want to get it off to a head start in colder weather then hydroponics would be a great way to go as it comes from the tropics and doesn't like the cold.
in a hydroponic unit - the kind that just slowly drips the solution into the pots - it grew so well that when we moved it and forgot about it it still kept on growing without the solution and we had to cut it all out of the pot in a tangled mass - no need to use solution on galangal it will grow easily anywhere but if you want to get it off to a head start in colder weather then hydroponics would be a great way to go as it comes from the tropics and doesn't like the cold. We have grown basil, mint and parsley and chives successfully in old yogurt containers with the hydroponic solution and the plants produced all winter long on a sunny window sill.
Rivervalley Garden - moving a garden and why would you want to ?
We have just moved from an established garden (Rivervalley Garden) to a brand new one with nothing in it. Garden helpers came in pretty handy and human became supervisor !
The garden has grown everything we needed for three years so the next one needs to be set up real quick.
We didn't want to leave our barrels full of well rotted compost or the other full barrel of comfrey "tea" so ended up decanting them into old milk bottle containers to move to the new place and moved the barrels over and poured them back in at the new place.
Compost was also well rotted down and ready to use - well no point in leaving it there was it ? this has been bagged up and moved over too and is now layering the hay garden - still bemoaning fact that we had to leave at least a third that wasn't ready !
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Start of one of the new hay garden - layers of animal manure, compost, and hay and just several rhubarb plants have been put in. My nettles are still in the bag we transported them in and are doing so well we might just leave them there for a while.
 Established hay garden starting to grow and produce |
Organic Homegrown Butternuts - rich and full of flavor
These butternuts practically grew themselves - I just added some seeds to a pile of compost that was left in a small heap after moving it someplace and up they came - prolifically too, we have eaten quite a few of them before I remembered to photograph them. They were all very sweet and had a much richer flavor than shop bought ones and I didn't do much extra to them - no extra feeding, not extra watering and we had a long dry summer with hardly any rain.
Save the seeds of any pumpkins and butternuts or squash that that you have enjoyed eating for next season as they grow so easily if they are open pollinated or heirloom seeds.
Get your seed from a reputable organic source
to be absolutely sure you are getting heirloom seeds and not some hybrid mix.
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