Great Gardening Tips For Growing Herbs

We grow our own herbs here at Chickenmash Farm. It’s pretty easy and nothing tastes better than fresh herbs. You can tuck herbs anywhere. We grow herbs in our flower beds, garden and containers.

Let’s talk about growing herbs in containers. You want to use containers that drain well and you can use anything from a wicker basket to clay pots and even an old boot. An advantage to growing herbs in containers is you can move them around to the best location for sun or shade when needed on scotching summer days. You need to remember to water when drying out. Plants in containers dry out faster in the heat the plants grown directly in the ground. The great thing about growing most herbs is you can keep trimming the herbs and harvest the whole season.

Growing herbs in the garden has great advantages for you vegetable plants. We like to grow basil near our tomato plants. Basil helps tomatoes with insect control and improves flavor. Bee Balm is another great herb to grow with tomatoes. It helps improve health and flavor. Not to mention it’s a beautiful herb.

Rosemary is great to grow with you carrots as it helps repel the carrot fly. Rosemary is one of my favorites! We grow it in the garden, containers and flower beds. This is one herb we use not only for cooking but also in our Rosemary Mango Goat Milk Soap. It holds its flavor and fragrance even when dried. You can use the woody stems as a kabob skewer. While we’re talking carrot, chives are also a good herb to grow with carrots.

 Dill is a good plant to grow with cabbage to help with health and growth but doesn’t like to be near carrots. Honeybees like dill also. And we all know honeybees are a gardener’s best friend.

Flax is good to grow near potatoes to help repel Colorado potato beetle.

Now let’s talk flower beds. We grow herbs in our flower beds and use clay pots to contain herbs like mint. And it just gives the flower bed a decorative edge. We take clay pots and break the bottoms out. We then” plant the pot” so to speak. We leave the top half the pot sticking out of the ground and bury the bottom half. I leave the pot in the ground all year long.

We grow lots of lavender for our Legendary Lavender Goat Milk Soap and in the flower bed it adds color and a can be used as a hedge. You don’t have to use the same clay pot method we do in our flower beds but it is great for the mint family. Mints like to spread and take over so the pot helps hold them in place and it makes it easy to give the mint a haircut. Just trim the mint spilling outside the rim of your pot and you dry for later use. We all know it’s good in tea but you can also use dried mint to repel clothes moths. The dried leaves repel rats and mice too.
We can’t end without at least mentioning parsley. Parsley is one of those herbs we use all three methods, in the garden, in the flower bed and in containers. We love this one for our goats. Sometimes after giving birth goats will have a congested utter. Keep in mind a congested utter is different than a goat with mastitis. We have had amazing results by feeding parsley which is a natural diuretic.  It should not be used in excess with pregnant women as it has been shown to stimulate uterine contractions. Happy planting and exploring all the options herbs have to offer!