Practical Tips on Growing Your Own Herbs
May 17, 2010 by PinoyOrganics
Filed under Gardening, Green Exchange
When innovators Mara Pardo de Tavera and Gil Carandang encouraged us to get our hands dirty and learn about urban gardening, we did not expect that we would be doing it this soon. After visiting several farms and talking to other successful urban gardeners about it, we started building our kitchen garden by buying herbs.
Here are 4 ways to get started on growing your herbs:
1. CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITES. We started with 5 popular herbs to experiment on, plus 4 other herbs which we bought out of curiosity : basil, rosemary, sage, swiss mint, lavender, maravillosa or citronella, goto kola, cat whiskers and stevia. After a little over eight weeks, we are relieved to see them alive and healthy!
2. READ, READ AND READ MORE. Search the internet or buy books. There are a lot of good books about gardening and herbs. We are reading now “The Organic Garden” by Christine and Michael Lavelle. The more you learn about herbs, the more you are encouraged to grow them.
3. BUILD AND THEY WILL COME. The best way to learn about herbs you are not familiar with is to grow them yourself! You don’t have to buy all of them at once. Enjoy the thrill of collecting herbs. We buy new herbs each time we visit a farm and/or weekend market. To date, we have around 30 potted culinary and medicinal herbs.
Here are some of our new potted herbs we bought yesterday at Nuvali Green Market:
Cinnamon Basil, great addition to your apple pie
Eucalyptus Mint, your natural stress reliever
Chocolate Mint, great for tea and baking
Thai Coriander, easy to grow and taste like regular coriander
Celosias and Purple Pepper, drought-resistant beauties
4. LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS. Yesterday, we were glad to make it just on time to attend Gil Carandang‘s basic workshop on herbs in Nuvali Green Market.
Gil brought some seedlings from Herbana Farms, too, so we thought it would be very handy to have these are culinary and medicinal herbs in our own garden:
Thyme, an all around herb
Mexican Thyme, a new fave of chefs
If you want to learn more about herbs, join our urban gardening workshops such as the one we included in the “MARKET-TO-PLATE TOUR”. Most of our tours include a special hands-on urban gardening workshop entitled, “Growing Your Own Herbs”. You may call 0922 895 3975 or 347-3975 and inquire about our upcoming workshops.
What are your top 3 favorite herbs and why do you like them?
thank you very much for your tips. It would be very helpful since I’m starting to build my herbal garden in our rooftop. I bought 9 herbs seedlings yesterday and hope it would grow just like yours ! Thanks again God Bless
How very interesting! The pictures of the herbs look most inviting and I would buy them just for how they look even if i don’t cook!
@ Ted Glad you find our article helpful even if we’re newbies ourselves. Happy gardening!
@Patsy That was one of the reasons why we bought them, too, particularly the Thai Coriander.
hi
my basil and mint are being attacked by caterppilar like insect
what organic pesticide will I use ?
thanks
caterpillar – i mean
also there are some little bugs
Try spraying water with chili and garlic. Let me know what happens. 😉
I am so interested in growing my own small herbal garden. But i just cannot recognize these herbs. yesterday I bought two herbs as a start ( stevia and parsley).I believe many of them are locally grown also and have local names. The pictures you posted will help me a lot. Maybe in your next articles you could also feature their local names. thank you
Thanks for your comment, Malu. Next time, we will ask the sellers to give us their local names. Hope to see you in one of our gardening events. Happy gardening!;)
I’m really enjoying growing herbs in my backyard even if I’m through trial and error. Some are thriving, some I’ve unknowingly “murdered”. 🙁 Unfortunately, the advise I get from vendors are sometimes confusing. But I won’t give up because there’s really nothing like cooking with herbs fresh from my garden! Is there a regular workshop by Gil Carandang?
Love your site btw! Lots of practical easy-to-apply tips! 🙂
Chef, join us again for “Growing Your Own Herbs” at WOFEX 2010, 3pm on Thursday, Aug. 5!
Too bad I just saw your post re: “Growing Your Own Herbs†at WOFEX 2010. Would you know of any other schedule for the same event? I’m also tending my own herb garden at home.
We usually conduct a once-a-month Market-to-Plate Tour where we go to the market and cook whatever we buy there. Then we learn about growing herbs, cook them and eat! Check out our calendar of events. Invite your family and friends. It’s really fun!
I love growing herbs! I buy them as seedlings, transfer into roomy clay pots and just let them grow. I’m not into my 8th generation of basil, rosemary, mint, and oregano. I just water them, pick out dead leaves, sometimes I give them homemade fertilizer made from crushed eggshells, pureed fruit peelings (orange peels, watermelon, etc.) and some ground coffee and they grow like crazy! The basil even flowers during the latter part of the summer months which attracts butterflies. I highly recommend growing your own herbs 🙂
That’s great, maelena! Keep growing your herbs. Try adding them to simple dishes. 😉
hi!!! i really would like to start my own herb garden. Where can I buy seedlings? :)thanks so much!!!!!
That’s great, Sharon! Try Manila Seedling Center in EDSA cor Quezon Avenue in Quezon City. That’s where we bought some of our herbs.
Just a tip: Start with 5 and choose herbs that you’ll really like and will probably use. 🙂
Keep us posted here how your herb garden is coming along, ok?
Hi! I’ve been dreaming to have my own herb garden but I’m a real newbie on gradening. I bought a few seedlings ( sweet basil, stevia, tarragon and eucalyptus mint). It’s been three days ago and now my eucalyptus mint seems like drying up and dying. Can you share some tips to me how to care for this herb? Thanks!
Congratulations, newbie gardener! Most herbs, esp mint, love water and morning sunshine so please water it everyday and make sure it’s not under harsh sun in the afternoon that may have caused your plant from drying up/ browning. 🙂 Happy gardening.