The GIANT Book on Growing and Using Herbs

By Dueep Jyot Singh

Table of Contents

Introduction
How to Lay Out a Herbal Garden
Thinking of Layout Plans
Making Paths
Best Flower Choices
Making a City Herbal Garden
Making Leaf Mold
Making Natural Organic Compost
Feeding the Soil
My Way of Planting
Making Soil Beds
Wooden Boxes as Plant Containers
Window Boxes
Other Containers
Herb Growing Project for Children
Suitable Herbs for Your Garden
Perennials for herb borders and for beds
Culinary and Beauty Uses of Herbs
Elderflower Water
Conserves
Herbal wines
Herbal Force Meat Stuffing
Apple and Mint Jam
The Power of Herbs
Which Herbs to Grow
Where Do You Grow Herbs?
Best Soil for Herbs.
Planning Your Garden
Chessboard Garden
Propagation of Herbs
Growing through Cuttings
Test – Have Roots Been Formed?
Herb Plant Division
Plant maintenance
Harvesting Your Plants
Root Plants
Whole Plant Harvesting
Leaves Harvesting
Herbal Harvesting
Flowers Harvesting
Seed Harvesting
Drying Your Herbs
Herb Storing
Using Herbs
Herbal tips
Bouquet Garni
Omelet aux herbes fines
Making Herb Tea
Growing herbs on your window sill
Knowing More about Herbal Plant Culture
Some Important Herbs and How to Grow Them
Basil [Ocimum basilicum]
Chives [Allium schoenoprasum]
Horseradish [Armorecia rusticana]
Horseradish and Applesauce
Root Cuttings
Sweet Marjoram [Origanum majorana]
Parsley Petroselinum crispum
Fish Parsley
First Method
Second Method
Fennel [Foeniculum vulgare]
Mint
Mint Chutney
Herb Harvesting
Herbal Teas
Basil Tea
Mint Tea
Lavender
Chamomile
Medicinal Chamomile Tea
Sweet Woodruff [Gallium odoratum]
Sweet Cicely [Myrrhis odorata]
Beneficial Herbs
Knowing More about John Innes Compost
How to Make Leaf Compost
A Little Rant about Outdated Agricultural Practices
Growing Herbs in Pots
Marjoram- Origamum omites- leaves
Thyme – Thymus vulgaris-Leaves
Thyme Vinegar
Chives –Allium choenoprasum –leaves
Tarragon - Artemisia dracunculus – leaves.
Fennel -Foeniculum vulgare–F.officinale – Leaves, Stem and Seed
Shrub Permanents for Your Garden
Lavender – Lavandula angustifolia
Rosemary – Rosmarinus officinalis
Sage – Salvia officinalis
Roses
Rue –Ruta graveolens
Artemisias –Artemisia pontica – the Roman wormwood
Hair Growth Recipe
Bay – The Roman Laurel –Laurus nobilis
Winter Savory – Satureja Montana
Medieval Sciatica Remedy
Other Herb Garden Favorites
Sorrel – Rumex acetosa
Traditional Sorrel Sauce
Tansy – Tanacetum vulgare
Poppy – Papaver Orientale
Clove Carnation – Dianthus caryophyllus
Borage – Borago officinalis – leaves, flowers, and stems
Conclusion
Author Bio
Publisher

Introduction

The moment you hear the word “Herb” you visualize a soft stemmed plant, which is normally used in cookery, as well as in alternative medicine. These herbs used for millenniums have been an important part of our social traditional and religious fabrics all over the world. No one, without an interest in nature is not going to know more about Rosemary, sage, lavender, thyme, hyssop, basil, and other herbs put into use down the centuries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mendon Cottage Books
• Release date: Feb 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311288684

Book preview

Introduction

The moment you hear the word Herb you visualize a soft stemmed plant, which is normally used in cookery, as well as in alternative medicine. These herbs used for millenniums have been an important part of our social traditional and religious fabrics all over the world. No one, without an interest in nature is not going to know more about Rosemary, sage, lavender, thyme, hyssop, basil, and other herbs put into use down the centuries.

The awareness of the medical as well as the edible qualities of herbs, was naturally gained in prehistoric days by happy and sad experience. When food was nasty tasting or scarce, the pungent herbs made it more delicious and acceptable to eat. Leafy herbs provided vegetables and salads. Soon people began to find out that some herbs would also heal wounds and ease suffering. So that means that even the herbs that we supposedly used for culinary purposes could be used for healing purposes.

In 460 B.C. Greeks were writing about the curative powers of plants. In the East, these herbs were used in alternative medicine, through medical books and compendiums written more than 5000 years ago. In Europe, all medical treatment based on herbs was done, thanks to a book written by Dioscorides in A.D. 60.

In ancient Europe, The Greeks, Egyptians and the Romans could not do without their herbs. Culinary delights, especially the blending of sauces, which were made of flowers, herbs, spices and wines were possibly started in a Greek country named Sybaris , from where we get the term sybarite , or a person who enjoys pleasure. They were the people who made sleeping on rose petals, a fashion.

All the herbs and the flowers which were used to keep the Sybarites happy were grown in the gardens in the plains of Possidonia and you can still see them today.

The regular use of a large variety of flowers and herbs for medical and culinary purposes has just come down the ages to us since ancient times. However, in the early – mid-19th century with the rise of industrialization, the popularity of herbs began to grow lesser, because people started to clear up large tracts of lands on which herbs grew, to give way to cities and human settlements. In fact, one great forest in the USA, Limberlost made popular in the writings of a writer and naturalist, Gene Stratton Porter was totally destroyed due to the felling of timber.

If Teddy Roosevelt was not such an ardent and dedicated naturalist, many of the great green forest areas of the USA, which are now natural forest reserves, with herbs still present in them, would have been destroyed through man’s encroachment and greed.

So apart from these herbs still available in the wilderness, this book is going to tell you how to make an Herb gardening your own house. Thanks to the revival of interest and appreciation of herbs in the 21st century to heal and to cure and to beautify you, people with gardens are realizing the beauty of herbal plants. They are also learning the added pleasure of growing them in their garden, so that they can use these herbs freshly picked.

People living in flats are raising these herbs on windowsills by planting them in window boxes. In town gardens, you can grow them in wooden tubs, boxes, and even in large pots on balconies and in your backyards.

How to Lay Out a Herbal Garden

Measure your space first. Make a pan of what you need in your garden. This is going to help you visualize your garden in relation to your house. Do not make a very complex plan, by introducing a large number of features, just because you want ornate ornamentation. Generally speaking, the center of your garden should remain spacious and uncluttered.

However, if your area is enclosed by a fence or by high walls, it is much better sense to make the plant beds towards the center. You can raise them about 1 ½ feet above the general level so that they can receive lots of sunshine. That is, if you are growing your plants in an area which is surrounded by trees, and with buildings, which prevents sunshine from soaking through the soil of your garden.

Note down the positions of the doors in relation to the garden wall, so that you can incorporate them aesthetically in your plan and layout. If there are other natural features already present, such as trees, or even a group of flowering bushes or a possible difference in levels, all of these features can be incorporated into your plan and give you scope for interesting landscaping treatment of your gardening land.

Grass is always desirable in a garden, but it is difficult to grow, if the place is shady and confined. However, if your site is open, you may want to add a little bit of a lawn, surrounded by herbaceous shrubs and plants.

Lookout for the sparrows and other birds, which like raiding the seed, which you have sown. This is, of course, if you are sowing the plants in already prepared beds.

Thinking of Layout Plans

As long as you have the space, it is very easy to accommodate a number of culinary herbs and medicinal herbs outdoors. A tiny garden is going to have a small herbal border. You can use low growing plants here. Ornamental flowers like fennel can be used to enhance flower borders and flower beds. You can also place herbs admirably alongside large flowering plants, to make a pleasant contrast.

Try planting lovage , which is massive, as a herbal border behind delphiniums . Rue And hyssop are small bushes. You can complement lilies, roses, and even phlox with these shrubs along with Rosemary and Sage.

Have you had a Green Bay tree flourishing in your garden? A number of expensive restaurants have this elegant plant growing in a tub placed partly in the shade, and allowed to develop naturally.

The old formal gardening plan coming down through ancient times, has always included paths, at least 3 feet wide. In monasteries, the paths made across, – so that the devil would be scared to enter data garden –. Monks also planted these plans in raised beds, so that they did not have to bend over much and the soil was also kept well-drained.

Making Paths

These gardens are easy to make if the Paths are marked out and the topsoil is removed from them and placed in the areas where you are going to plant your plants. That is how you are going to get ample and good topsoil for your plants. That also means that the paths are going to be sunken, with plants to your left and right.

The beds have to be supported by low walls of stone or even old bricks so that means sometimes which are creeping plants can get an opportunity to grow into the crevices and spread their creepers.

You may want to pave the paths with stones or you may grapple them so that any hoe can keep them free from weeds. Stone paths are amazingly good-looking, but they can get very slippery, especially in the rainy weather. On the other hand, gravel is always safe. It is also durable. If you spread this gravel on a firm foundation of ashes and stones, and roll it hard when it is wet enough to be compressed with a firm roller, you are going to have a stylish and long-lasting path.

In a Herb Garden every plant has its particular use and beauty. The aromatic evergreen shrubs and herbs are going to flower throughout the year, especially in the winter. If you do not live in a harsh frost area, you are going to enjoy foliage of dark green, bronze, purple, greenish silver and different colored herbal colorings, depending on the season.

Best Flower Choices.

Carnations, Madonna lilies – put the white petals of this flower into any pure alcoholic spirit and use it as an excellent antiseptic dressings for cuts and wounds. – Poppies, Elder’s blossom, nasturtiums, marigolds, violets, roses and bergamot are also excellent flowering herbs to place in your garden.

Making a City Herbal Garden

Let Us Face It; making an organic herbal garden, especially in the city is quite an uphill process, thanks to the polluted atmosphere as well as the contaminated soil. This soil is acidic in nature. It is also sour. So if you are planning herbs there, you need to clean the ground thoroughly, and then add organic fertilizer, humus and compost. Natural leaf mold is excellent.