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Growing Herbs – How to Grow, Store and Use Fresh Herbs

Growing herbs is an easy way to add edible plants to your garden for cooking and to use in soothing teas and remedies.

Most herbs are versatile, and will grow right in your garden or in containers on a patio.

Herbs are popular with home cooks.

They are so popular that there is even a national day devoted to them. Herb Day is celebrated on the second Saturday in May each year.

This guide to growing herbs gives information on everything herb related. See how to grow, propagate,, use and display fresh herbs. #growingherbs #freshherbs

Herbs can be annuals, biennials, or perennials, but are generally grown for one season in most parts of the country. If you are lucky enough to live in warmer climates, they will grow all year round.

Herbs make a wonderful addition to any flower garden, and cooking with fresh herbs gives you truly delightful results compared to using dried spices.

Are you unsure about growing herbs?

If you like to use fresh herbs in cooking but don’t know the first thing about growing them, you have come to the right place.

This page of my site links to all of the articles that I have written about identifying herbs, and also how to grow them, how to store and preserve them and, best of all, how to use them.tomatoes and fresh herbs

Be sure to check thus page often.  I add articles to my site about growing herbs each month, so there is always some new information on growing herbs here.

Share these tips on growing fresh herbs on Twitter

If you enjoyed this article on growing and harvesting fresh herbs, why not share it with a friend. Here is a tweet to get you started:

Do you like the flavor of garden fresh herbs?  Find out all about growing your own! Click To Tweet

Types of Fresh Herbs

The list of fresh herbs is long. Many of them come in several varieties, colors and fragrances.  All add loads of flavor to your meals.  Why not try one of these?Growing fresh herbs gives you fresh flavor all year long. Click through to see my herb growing guide.

Basil This aromatic annual plant is one that I use all the time. You’ll become an expert at growing basil with these easy tips. Also check out my post for baked barramundi with basil pesto. It’s a great way to use basil in recipes.

Bay Leaf – Tips for growing a Bay Laurel plant, and find out how to dry bay leaves. This post also featured 11 recipes using bay leaves.

Chervil – Grow this herb for using in French cooking.

Chives – This perennial herb adds a light onion touch to foods and is best used fresh.

Cilantro – Love the taste of hate it, this herb is still one of the most popular for cooking Asian and Mexican food.

Dill – This biennial herb is used in many recipes from pickles to sauces and as a flavoring from fish.

Ginger – This rhizome is actually a vegetable but many consider it a herb or spice. Find out how to grow ginger from ginger root pieces.

Oregano From the planter to the Italian table, growing oregano is a cook’s delight.

Rosemary I love the earthy flavor of fresh rosemary. It is a great herb to use with chicken and turkey and really comes into its own around the holidays.

Sage The robust flavor of this her makes it a great choice to flavor sausages, pork game and beef. And of course, it’s wonderful in stuffing recipes.  See my sage care tips here.

Tarragon This delicate herb has the flavor of anise/licorice and is often used in French cuisines. Find out how to grow it as well has get some harvesting and using tips.

Thyme I love the tiny leaves of thyme, since you can just strip them off and use them whole in recipes.  See tips for growing thyme here.

Wheatgrass – This grass like herb grows very quickly from seeds. See tips for growing wheatgrass here.

Growing Herbs Indoors

Herbs do well in the garden since they like a lot of sunlight, but if you have sunny windows, you can also grow them indoors during the colder months.Herbs can be grown indoors in the winter months

Don’t know where to start? Check out my tips for growing a herb garden indoors.  It’s easier than you might think!

Also be sure to check out this post on herbs to grow indoors – It lists my favorite 10 Herbs for a sunny window sill as well as some growing tips for them.

What types of Pots can you use for for fresh Herbs?

Displaying  Fresh Herbs

All herbs can  be grown planted right in the garden.  You can have a dedicated area for herbs or mix them into your perennial garden. Add them to window boxes or used them in pretty containers.

And the sky is the limit when it comes to growing them in pots indoors!

Herbs can be grown indoors in lots of pretty containers. Click to see my guide to growing and using fresh herbs.

A cute cottage chic farmer’s market tray is turned into a fun DIY mason jar herb garden project in just a few easy steps in this fun project.

These delightful DIY wooden spoon herb plant markers are super easy to make and so much fun in the garden.

Print out these herb plant labels to help you identify your new herb garden seeds while they are starting to grow.

Fresh Herbs Maintenance

Herbs are pretty low care compared to other plants. Give them sun light and water well and they grow easily.  But there are still a few things that you need to do to keep them at their best.

These maintenance and storage tips be useful.

Garden Tools

Has your rosemary plant taken over in the garden?  See my tips for pruning rosemary bushes.

When the cold weather sets in, these tips for freezing and preserving herbs will really come in handy.

Tools for Herb Identification

This list of perennial herbs gives names of the herbs that will grow back each year after winter.

Can you recognize all the herbs by sight?  Do you know whether they will love from one year or the next? These articles will help to answer your questions.Common kitchen herbs

Be sure to check out the larger version of the herb identification chart above. It features 18 common kitchen herbs and will be a great help in identifying them by sight.

The PlantSnap mobile app is a great tool for identifying herb plants as well as many other plants and flowers.

Not all herb plants die after just one season. Fresh herbs can be perennials, biennals or annuals.  Find out which they are in this article.

Here is another tweet to share

There is nothing like the flavor of home grown fresh herbs. See some fun ideas for using them. Click To Tweet

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to also check out my article on winter spices. There are loads of them to use when fresh herbs go dormant in cold weather.

Using fresh herbs

I use fresh herbs all the time in cooking.  Nothing add quite as fresh a flavor as a big handful of your favorite herbs.  They can be used for recipes, for soothing teas and as ingredients in oils and butters.Fresh herbs can be used for cooking, for infused oils and for so many other purposes. Click through to see my guide for growing and using herbs.

If you are a cook, you will love my list of the 10 best herbs for kitchen gardens.

May 19 is National Plant Something Day.  I chose to plant basil to honor the day

Did you know that many fresh herbs are effective mosquito repelling plants? Basil, catnip, lavender, lemon grass and many other fresh herbs make the list!

Combine your fresh herbs with oil and vinegar to use in cooking.  Get the recipe for Italian Herb Vinegar here.

Propagating Herbs – New Herbs for Free!

Just like any other plants, herbs can be propagated in a variety of ways, from seed starting to taking cuttings.

These pages will help you if you are trying to increase your collection of fresh herbs by propagating them.Fresh herbs grow easily from seeds and cuttings. Click to check out my herb growing guide.

Most fresh herbs grow very easily from seeds. This article gives some general seed starting tips to get you going quickly.

Also check out my tutorial for starting seeds in peat pellets.  I chose some kitchen garden herbs to start this way.

I’ve also got a recipe for a DIY seed starting mix you can use to start seeds.

Overgrown perennial herbs can benefit from division and most herbs will grow from cuttings. Get help with these plant propagation tips.

Recommended Products to Help with Growing Herbs

A few handy tools can make all the difference to the results that you get from your herb garden.  From grow lights to the right containers and seeds, these products will be a big help getting the most out of your herb garden.

If you are looking for more information on growing herbs, be sure to check out my Pinterest Herbs Board. The board has lots of great tips and tricks as well as some very creative ideas for your herb gardens.Pinterest Herb garden board
If you liked this guide, be sure to check out these resources for gardening, too: