Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Fresh Cooking From Your Garden

Tips For Creating a Wonderful Indoor Herb Garden

Cooking meals with fresh ingredients has several positive benefits. First and probably most important is the taste. Some individuals, particularly children, can be pretty picky when it comes to what they'll eat. Parents want to prepare healthy meals that taste great and with an indoor herb garden that's easily done.

If you've ever visited the grocery store in search of fresh oregano, mint or rosemary you know how pricey it can be. All too often people forgo the fresh variety and instead settle on a bottle of the dried herb. If you do this you are losing all the nutritional value of the herb not to mention the burst of flavor fresh provides. An indoor herb garden can fit into any space and it saves the cook a lot of money.

Don't believe for a second that you need a green thumb to be able to grow your own fresh herbs at home. You don't. You simply need a really sunny spot to place the indoor herb garden, some water, a few simple instructions and some tender loving care.

Purchasing the plants when they are already sprouting is one approach that many people take. The reason these fit well into an indoor herb garden is that you can usually begin using the herb within a few days or weeks. Most garden centers will have a healthy selection of plants that are ideal for an indoor herb garden. The best time of year to buy them is during the spring and summer months.

Some people decide to jump onto the fresh cooking bandwagon once winter rolls around. If you decide in the frozen cold of November that you want to begin growing some herbs inside you can. Many websites offer year-round availability of plants that can be used in an indoor herb garden. You simply pay to have them shipped right to your home. Once they arrive you will have an already growing indoor herb garden that you can enjoy throughout the winter and the rest of the year too.

A less expensive route but one that requires a lot of patience is planting the seeds and growing the plants yourself. This simply requires pots, potting soil and the seeds. If you enjoy gardening to this degree and you are not in any rush to enjoy your indoor herb garden, this can be a rewarding approach.

Regardless of which approach you ultimately take you can certainly take advantage of the warmth of the summer sun and put your indoor herb garden outside for a few weeks. This won't harm the plants in the least as long as you bring them back indoors before the frost arrives.


Percy Troughton's runs his own garden center as well as running several shopping based websites. His particular speciality is gardening. Check out these great Flower Garden tips and articles or Garden Tools tips and articles.

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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Fresh Cooking

There's nothing like cooking with fresh produce and what better way to have them readily available then to grow your own kitchen garden! A kitchen garden not only gives you good fresh produce but it also adds a bit of interest to your yard. It can be as simple as just a few herbs or you can go all out and grow vegetables too.

Fruit, vegetables and herbs are very rewarding to grow and there's an extra special flavor to produce you've grown yourself. Plus you know that no pesticides or chemicals have been used when you grow it yourself.

While cooking with fresh foods you've grown yourself might sood great, be warned, a kitchen garden is going to be very labor-intensive. If you don't like gardening or working outside, you might be better off getting your produce at the grocery store. The only way you're going to get a good healthy crop of fruit, vegetables and herbs is by lavishing tender loving care and attention on them.

If you do decide that a kitchen garden is for you, start growing early and you may produce a bountiful crop weeks ahead of the normal time. This will give you a good harvest during a time when those fruits and vegetables are particularly expensive in the store.

You can make your kitchen garden as functional and attractive as possible with careful planning. If space is at a premium you can choose some of the more decorative vegetables and herbs and plant them in your flower beds.

Make sure you pick a sunny site in your garden as most herbs and vegetables need the sun to do well. If you are growing fruit trees, you should ensure that they do not cast a shadow over the vegetables and herbs.

When planting your herbs, remember that they will stay green almost all year so make sure you plan for how they will contrast with the existing plants. Tall herbs can be planted at the back of a traditional flower garden and low-growing herbs make excellent flower garden borders.

If you don't have a lot of garden space, you can plant herbs in containers and they will do well. You can also plant many vegetables in containers. Peas, potatoes and tomatoes are just a few that will do well.

Some vegetables are even attractive enough to be planted amongst the Cooking - but remember that you are going to have gaps once the vegetables are harvested.

Many people think you need acres of land to have fruit trees, but there is a large range of fruit that you can grow even if you have a small yard. Small apple trees can even grow in pots on the patio and strawberries do well in containers. There's even varieties of cordon-trained apples and pears that can be grown against a garden fence.

If you want to enjoy the flavor of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs in your gourmet cooking, there really is no reason at all why you can't have the joy of growing and harvesting food for your own kitchen table in your own kitchen garden, no matter how small the plot.

About the author:

Lee Dobbins writes for Online Gourmet Foods where you can learn more about gourmet eating.

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