Organic Herb Gardening

by Dr Katherine Aaron

Creating an Organic Herb Garden in Seven Steps

Organic herb gardens are by far the easiest and most useful gardens of all. You'll get a fantastic return on your investment of energy, time and money. In addition to, or instead of a garden, herbs can be grown in pots and other creative containers. The potted perennial herbs can be brought indoors during winter and enjoyed all year round. Although the maintenance is different, these basic 7 steps are used for creating organic vegetable and flower gardens, too.

The first step is to make a list of the herbs that you'd like to grow based on any health condition and culinary needs. For example a very simple cold & flu remedy to keep on hand might be echinacea, oregano, borage & thyme. So you need grow enough oregano and thyme for making the remedy and also enough for your kitchen use. There's a list of east to grow herbs below. How large of an area the plant will need is another consideration. If the leaves are the active part of the herb, like thyme and oregano, you can keep them as large or as small as you want by harvesting them more often or leaving them alone for a while. If the flowers are the active part of the herb like calendula or echinacea, you will need to plan on providing them with more room.

Also keep in mind that some herbs, like rosemary, have several varieties that can range from large shrubs down to 12 inches. Step one will roughly determine the size that your garden needs to be. Once that's done, your second step is finding a sunny location to accommodate the size of your herb garden. The majority of herbs require a lot of direct sunlight so avoid planting near trees or the house. If it can't be avoided, plant on the south side of structures to maximize the time the herbs will be in direct sun.

Your third step is to measure your garden. Put stakes to mark the corners and then sketch out how you'll plant the herbs. Keep the tallest herbs in the back or if the garden is accessible on all sides plant the tallest herbs in the center. This makes harvesting much easier. The fourth step is to take your sketch to a nursery that caters to organic gardeners, a health food store with a gardening department or the garden center of a home improvement store that carries organic seeds and plants. Your best choice is to find a local nursery that caters to organic gardeners. The best tips for growing organically in your area will come from the knowledgeable employees and owner of your local nurseries.

Growing from seeds takes a little longer, but in my experience it's the most rewarding since you get to watch their entire growing process from seedling to mature plant. Either way always buy organic or heirloom varieties whenever possible. I've discovered that many of the new hybrids just aren't the same as the old heirloom or organic varieties. Heirloom refers to an older variety of plant. I believe this is because some plants have lost many of their desirable qualities with all of the genetic engineering (GMO) going on today. So even if the non-organic plants look better, they may not have the same properties as the organic or heirloom varieties have.

While you're at the store pick up enough organic compost to work into your soil. The amount depends on the size of your garden and your soil condition. The people at the nursery or garden department will know which products are the best for your soil type. Out here in the desert, organic gardeners amend their soil with Yum Yum Mix and compost made from organic cotton burr for the best results. Just like we need to eat for our bodies to grow and thrive, our plants need to eat, too. So be sure they have plenty of good food to eat by generously amending your soil properly with natural, non-chemical substances and plenty of organic matter. If your soil has a lot of clay or is very poor buy some top soil to work in, too. A bag or two of a natural mulch will cut down your on weeding and watering time. My favorite mulch is shredded eucalyptus since it also acts as a natural pesticide and is long lasting.

You'll have to roll up your sleeves for the fifth step, which is digging your garden to prep the bed. It's the hardest part of creating a garden but you only have to do it once. Remove the top layer of soil that contains the roots of weeds, grasses and other plants. Work the compost and other soil amenders into the remaining soil, the deeper the better but at least 12-18 inches deep. Roots have an easier time penetrating loosened soil and the nutrients will reach them easier as well so do a little sweating and really work your soil.

Amending your soil is the most important step when creating an organic garden and you'll never have a chance to do it over without tearing out your garden. Most herbs are perennials, meaning they come back year after year and many are evergreen meaning they stay green all year round. So once you've planted your garden you don't want to disturb them by having to dig them up to amend the soil properly later on. The sixth step is putting the herbs or seeds into your garden bed and adding the mulch. The seventh and last step is to water the plants. When you’re finished planting give them a long, slow drink of water. Watering slowly allows time for the water to penetrate deeply and evenly throughout the entire garden. I always get a special satisfaction as I play rainmaker and admire the new garden in step seven.

New plants will need the soil to be evenly moist for about a week to allow them to take root. Seeds require evenly moist soil until the seedlings get a few inches tall. Once this is done your garden is established and all the hard work is over!

Maintaining Your Organic Herb Garden

Maintenance of an herb garden is extremely easy. Pruning is done each time you harvest and weeding can be done at the same time whenever you see grass or weeds start to pop up. In many parts of the country herbs gardens get along quite well without additional water. However, if you live in a dryer climate you'll have to give the plants a drink of water if they begin to sag look stressed. They generally require some extra water the first year.

Harvest the tips of the plants wherever you see a flower bud unless the flower itself is the part that’s harvested as is the case with calendula. The plant will put most of it's energy into producing seeds if you let the flowers grow and this will reduce the amount of the beneficial volatile oils in the leaves and also some herbs will start to taste bitter. The life span of annuals is one year and once they produce seeds it signals the plant that their life cycle is complete and it will die. So keep deadheading throughout the growing season or until the end of summer if you want to gather seeds to share or plant the following spring. Letting the annuals reseed themselves keeps you from having to replant seeds or buy new plants in the spring. To do this, simply push the mulch back all around your plant and just let the seeds naturally fall into the soil. They’ll come up naturally next spring.

Add more compost to your garden every fall and spring by removing the mulch and adding about 1-2 inches of compost into the soil. Being careful not to disturb the roots or the seeds if you’re allowing an annual to reseed itself and gently work the compost into the top few inches of the soil. Some people simply lay the compost down and don't even bother to work it in with great results. Personally I enjoy playing in the garden dirt so I always work it in a bit. Cover the soil back over with the mulch and water and that's it. This should be the only fertilizer you'll ever need, but if your soil needs more nutrients try fish emulsion, worm casings or other organic and natural fertilizers added during the growing season.

Pesticides are rarely if ever needed since most of the volatile oils in herbs naturally repel insects. But if your garden develops a problem with caterpillars I recommend BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) and just use Neem (extract from the Neem tree) for all other insects. Both of these are approved for use in organic farming and are readily available online, at nurseries and at garden centers with an organic section.

Herbs are easy to grow and as you can see, once established it takes very little effort to maintain. They'll give you year after year of fresh herbs for your health and well being in addition to being a total delight in the kitchen. Herbs are a beautiful and fragrant addition to your life. Now that you've got an ever-expanding source of herbs you'll need to learn how to properly store them to keep the volatile oils at their peek.

Herb Storage

The easiest way to insure that you'll have an abundance of herbs to use year round is to dry some before winter. Unless you live in a very warm climate your herbs will die back or stop growing during winter. Not to worry though, the perennials will come back and the evergreens will start growing again in the spring and if you let your annuals reseed themselves so year after year you can have a delightful herb garden without buying new plants.

To dry herbs all you need are some string or small rubber bands and small glass jars. Easy. Cut the herbs stems, tie the ends together into small bundles (like a small bouquet) with the string or rubber bands and hang them upside down until they're completely dry. You may have to experiment with a few to find the right size bundles to insure that your herbs dry quickly. It’s important to hang the bundles in a dry location away from direct sunlight where it will have good air circulation. It should only take a few days for tender herbs like oregano and around a week for larger or woody herbs like calendula flowers. The shorter time it takes for you to dry the herbs, the more potent they will be, so keep your bundles small to insure the fastest drying times.

If you live in a very humid climate and don't use air conditioning then you have a couple of choices. I recommend spreading the herbs out on wire cooling racks and place them on top of butcher paper or wax paper. Make sure the herbs are in a single layer and turn them a couple of times to make sure they dry all the way through otherwise they’ll get moldy. The other method is to turn the oven on the lowest setting and when it's preheated turn the oven off. Put a single layer of herbs on a wire cooling rack or a slotted broiling pan and slide a baking pan underneath to catch anything that falls. Slide the rack of herbs inside the slightly warm oven and always keep the door ajar. Remember that heat will destroy many active ingredients in the volatile oils so be patient even if you have to remove the herbs to warm the oven a couple of times.

Once the herbs are completely dried put them into a large bowl and separate out the large stems. You can grind the herbs by rubbing them between your hands or if you'd like a finer consistency use a food processor or one of the little grinding devices like the Magic Bullet. For teas and tinctures I keep the herb pieces larger and for culinary use I grind them up finer. Immediately store your freshly ground herbs in small glass jars.

Light, oxygen and heat are the enemy at this point since they break down and destroy the volatile oils. Because of this, take care in how you store your herbs. Plastic is porous and allows oxygen in so always use glass containers. Colored glass also helps to filter out sunlight. Use small containers just large enough to hold the amount of herbs to reduce the amount of air contact as well. Keep your glass jars of dried herbs stored in a dark and cool location. Computer address labels are perfect for labeling your herbs or you can buy the ready-made labels.