Plant Garden Home

If you are interested in starting a herb garden, these are the herbs that I recommend you start your herb garden with.

• Sage (Salvia officinalis) Sage is a woody, hardy perennial plant with
oblong, wooly, gray-green leaves that are lighter underneath and darker
on top. Sage grows 2 to 3 feet or more in height and has a tendency to
sprawl.

• Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) Thyme is a low-growing, wiry-stemmed
perennial that reaches about 6 to 10 inches in height. The stems are stiff
and woody and leaves are small, oval, and gray-green in color. The lilac
flowers are borne in small clusters and the leaves are very aromatic.

• Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) Rosemary is a hardy evergreen shrub
in areas where winter temperatures stay above 5oF (-15oC). In the
Northeast, however, this perennial should be taken indoors and kept as a
pot plant during winter. The narrow leaves have a leather-like feel and a
spicy, resinous fragrance.

• Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) Parsley is a hardy biennial that is usually
treated as an annual. It is popular because of its much-divided, sometimes
curly leaves which have a characteristic flavor and smell.

• Oregano (Wild marjoram) (Origanum vulgare) Oregano, also called “wild
marjoram,” is a hardy perennial that has sprawling stems which can grow
8
to 2 feet tall. This plant is much coarser than sweet marjoram and smells
more like thyme. It has small pink or white flowers.

• Dill (Anethum graveolens) Dill, a popular annual, has bluish-green stems
that contrast with finely divided, yellow-green, plume-like leaves and
yellowish flowers. Dill grows about 2 to 3 feet high.

• Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) Chives are small, dainty, onion-like
plants that grow in clumps reaching about 10 inches in height. They are a
hardy perennial with decorative, light purple flowers.

Organic gardening is the way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things only found in nature.

What are the advantages of organic gardening?

1. Recycling garden and kitchen waste and making into organic compost. Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it certainly helps to put garbage to good use and so saves the environment.

2. Organic gardening is totally safe and does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health. This is especially important when growing vegetables. Chemical companies inform us that the chemicals we use are safe if used according to direction, but research shows that it only takes tiny amounts of poisons to be absorbed through the skin to cause cancer, especially in children.

On the average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can lead to various diseases later on in the child’s life. With organic gardening, these incidents are considerably lessened.

Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose - to kill living things.

3. Organic gardening does less harm to the environment. Poisons are often washed from the ground into our waterways, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat and in some case our drinking water.

4. Organic gardening practices help prevent the loss of topsoil by preventing erosion.
The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 - 32 billion tons of soil erodes from United States farmlands every year.

4. Organic gardening is cost effective. There is no need to buy costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from the kitchen cupboard. Sometimes other plants can be grown as companions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.

5. Organic gardening practices are environmentally safe, and help keep the earth safe for future generations.