Container Gardening: Container Herb Garden

Tips For Growing a Container Herb Garden

Planting a container herb garden provides advantages that cannot be achieved through growing herbs in your garden. Container herb gardening provides the mobility necessary to protect your herbs from harsh outdoor weather and seasonal conditions, as well as predatory animals and insects. You will enjoy cultivating your herbs year-round in a more stable and forgiving environment than can be achieved through outdoor planting.

But potting herbs in a container is not an easy task. You have to spend a bit more time making sure the soil has the right amount of water and that the container receives the right amount of sunlight for your plants.

Many herbs are not picky about the pots that they are grown in and this is fortunate for those of us starting a herb container garden. Basil and rosemary can be grown in an old, chipped teapot or an empty coffee can. Thyme can grow in a small terracotta clay pot. Other herbs that love containers are dill, mint, sage and lavender.

The most important item to consider are your seeds; seeds must be of good quality and in good condition- remember like any organic substance they are subject to decay. Airborne spores may also contaminate seeds, and oxygen reacts with compounds in the seed. Safeguard against problems with your seeds by following the freshness dates on packages and avoid using any damp packages.

It is very important to select the best locations for your container herb garden. To choose the best location, you need to find out what type of exposure the plant will need. While some do very well in partial shade, other plants need much more sun. For example, Basil requires warm soil in addition to dry air and is sensitive to the cold. If you choose to grow the plant indoors, it will need to be close to a window to get enough light, but be cautious not to put it near a frosty window in the winter.

When choosing where to place your plants, keep in mind that in the Northern Hemisphere, sunlight enters in at an angle more from the south. Therefore, plants that need a lot of sun will benefit from being placed where they will have southern exposure. For the plants that need partial shade should be placed on the northern side or you can position them in an area away from the window that is more shady.

It is just essential to prepare the soil with a proper mix of sand and clay. In order to keep it at the most suitable moisture content as much as possible, specially in a container, it is advisable also to apply clay chips, although it may perform its job so well by absorbing and holding water for longer periods than what is necessary.

It is important to water the correct way. Container plants commonly develop a problem called root rot from too much moisture. Some plants like to be wet constantly, but most herbs prefer a dryer soil. Sage, for example, likes a dry soil, whereas peppermint likes it moist.

Remember that to be moist is not to be soaked. Moist soil should feel springy, while dry soil is hard. Next, you can use a toothpick or a moisture gauge to stick in the soil. When you remove the toothpick you will be able to tell if the soil is wet or dry. The gauge's reading will be more useful and more precise, though.

Some thoughtful planning prior to planting, will enable you to have a container herb garden that is easier to grow and maintain.

You can learn more about all types of herbs as well as learn about growing a container herb garden at http://basicherbgardeningtips.com/ where you will get basic tips for growing herbs both indoors and out.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lee_Dobbins

Indoor Organic Herb Garden

Growing an organic herb garden is a delightful project. The fragrant plants not only look and smell good; they are also good for flavoring foods.

Indoor organic herb gardens have the advantage of being year-round, giving a continuous supply of fresh herbs. An indoor organic herb garden can be as small as a few pots on a window sill or as large as a greenhouse filled with containers of aromatic organic herbs.

Herb Choices

There are many ways to decide which herbs to include in your organic herb garden. Here are some ideas.

1. Italian Herb Garden: Plant rosemary, oregano, basil, fennel, and chives. Terra cotta containers will make your indoor organic herb garden look authentically old world.

2. French Herb Garden: Begin with lemon basil, marjoram, and parsley, and add other herbs you like to use in French cooking.

3. Fragrant Herb Garden: Choose angelica, bergamot, catmint, chamomile, thyme, lavender, lemon balm, mint, and sage. This organic herb garden is a natural air freshener.

4. Tea Herb Garden: If you enjoy herbal teas, your organic herb garden might focus on appropriate herbs for your tea: catnip, chamomile, lavender, lemon grass, mint, and peppermint.

You may not want to theme your indoor organic herb garden, but simply grow a few herbs that appeal to you.

Containers

Many herbs are well-suited to container gardening, but you will want to choose containers according to the herbs you intend to grow.

1. Those tiny herb peat pots sold in discount stores give the wrong idea. Your indoor organic herb garden will not last long with such small thinking.

2. Begin with containers a bit larger than those in which the live nursery plants were purchased. This will give your plants room to start growing.

3. Once your herbs are stabilized and growing well, transplant them into larger containers.

4. Basil, mint, oregano, and sage are examples of herbs that can be grown in pots of about 8 to 10 inches.

5. If you want a large crop of herbs that is constantly being replenished in your organic herb garden, use 3 to 5 gallon containers. This will assure you of having plenty of rosemary, basil, etc. when you want it.

Container Soil

Indoor organic herb gardens call for building organic soil. Your soil should have a pH of about 7, since herbs prefer a more alkaline soil. If yours is too acid, add some calcified seaweed. Be sure you use only organic fertilizers to build your soil.

Indoor Lighting

An indoor organic herb garden will need lighting, especially if your room is not sunny. Lighting is especially important for year-round indoor gardens.

Different plants have different light requirements, some preferring bright sun and others preferring shade. Most herbs prefer full sun, but there are exceptions, so learn what each of your herbs needs.

Incandescent lights, even though called “grow lights”, are a poor choice for your indoor organic herb garden. Fluorescent lights are better, and have the advantage of being inexpensive, easily available, and easy to set up. The best choice for lighting your indoor organic herb garden is high intensity discharge lighting, often called HID lights. These are even more affordable and efficient.

Useful and Beautiful

An indoor organic herb garden can be both useful and beautiful. Herbs are generally eager to please, and require little maintenance. Simply give them the right food, water, and sunlight, and they will reward you abundantly.

©2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about organic gardening at http://www.organicspringtime.com Anna is posting new articles every week on that site, each one dealing with some facet of organic gardening. If you want information on locating live organic herb plants for your organic herb garden, you won’t want to miss Anna’s article on the subject.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anna_Hart By Anna Hart

Herba Buena

Misai Kucing

Misai Kuching is a herbaceous shrub, which grows to a height of 1.5m. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs. There are simple, green,and glabrous with a lanceolate leaf blade and a serrate margin. The leaf apice is acuminate with an acute leaf base. The petiole is relatively short, about 0.3cm in length and reddish purple in color. The stem is quadrangle, reddish in color, erect and branches profusely. The flowers are borne on verticils about 16cm in length. The terminal inflorescence is borne on a maroon pubescent. Bracts are green minute (1-2mm), caudiform in shape and two bracts normally holds a cluster of 5 flowers. The flowers are campanulate in shape, white bluish in color with long farexerted filaments, making the flowers look like cat's whiskers.

The flowers are hermaphrodite in nature, about 6.2m in length (including the stamens) with a very irregular flower symmetry. There are two calyx lobes, which are greenish red in color, measuring about 6mm in length and partially gamosepalous. One of the calyx margin is toothed and the other one entire, both covered with minute white hairs. There are two corolla lobes, which are partially gamopetalous and covered with minute hairs. The corollas are light violet in color with lobes much shorter than the corolla tube. The corollas are bilablade in shape with fringed margins. The labellum is light violet in color, hairy and pinkish on the under surface. There are 4 stamens which are inserted near the base of the corolla tube. The stamens are unequal in length, measuring from 4.7cm to 5.2cm. There is a single, central, terete style with a clavate stigma