Spice Up Your Life

Let's pot up some herbs for summertime cooking.  These herbs came from my all-time favorite nursery, Oakland Nurseries, in Columbus Ohio.  You would have to see it to believe it.  They have everything you could imagine for your garden.  The displays are breathtaking.  The plants and flowers are always in tip-top shape. 

First we need some pots.

 

Now we need some soil.  I use a soiless potting mix for container plantings.  It is light, absorbs water well, and promotes good root growth.

Two of these pots will be potted up with herbs.  The other two will be potted up with flowers in a couple of weeks.  They sit outside my kitchen door.  It's handy for snipping fresh herbs for cooking.  The overflowing pots will welcome me home each evening when I return from work this summer.  They will bring a smile to my face.

To plant the herbs, remove them from the pots by holding the plant in one hand and tapping the pot with the other.  Loosen the roots gently if they have become pot bound.  Make a hole for them with a scoop and place them in the hole at the same depth they were in the pot. Firm slightly. That is all there is to it.  It was not possible for me to plant and photograph at the same time. 

Here are the herbs at home in their pots. They look kind of spindly right now, but they will take off as the temperatures warm. 

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Below is the list of the starring characters, along with some information about the uses of each herb.  I hope this information will be helpful if you decide to start an herb garden.  Happy snipping! 



This is rosemary.  It loves a dry harsh environment.  When you brush the needle-like leaves,
they release the most wonderful smell.  It is used in meats, stews and spice mixtures.

This is oregano.  I am using both oregano, and its milder tasting cousing marjoram.
Oregano is used in Italian-American cooking.  It is generally thought of as the pizza herb.

This is thyme.  There are many varieties of thyme, all of them aromatic.  Thyme is used
in soups, stews, sauces, and in spice mixtures. 

This is sage.  It always makes me think of Thanksgiving stuffing, for which it is used. 
It can also be used with other meats as well.

This is cilantro, used in Mexican and South Asian cooking.
 You either love or hate the flavor.  It gives salsa its distinctive flavor

This is basil. Two varieties will make their way into the pots,
Genovese and Sweet.  My favorite summertime salad is sliced basil over
garden ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella with balsamic vinegar and olive
oil.  If you add it to cooked food, do so at the end.  It loses its flavor quickly.



These are chives.  Think of chives as very mild onion flavored stalks.  The green stalks
are snipped and used as a garnish.  I like them in dips and salads. 
They sport a beautiful lavender bloom.  You can see the buds just coming out.

This is parsley.  I am potting up both flat leaf, shown above, and its
more decorative cousin, curly.  Parsley can be used in a wide variety
of dishes, and is a stalwart garnish.  I like a sprig of it in salads.