Autumn is a Perfect Time for Your Home Herb Garden

« « Furniture Garden for real Home Living Room | Landscaping For The Holidays » »

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Fall is the time of year that the colors change to yellow, red and brown so do not forget your home herb garden. This time of the year, when the weather is not too hot your herb garden is calling for attention.

The beautiful blooms in your garden will give you the seeds for next year’s garden. Place a paper or plastic bag over the blooms. Tie the bag to the stem and cut it away. If you want to separate the seeds from the pods, then rub the bag together. Now you can put them in containers for storing until planting. I label an envelope and put all the envelopes in a shoebox.

Some people dry the stems with the leave on them. Tie a few stems together and hang in a dry location. Be sure the location is away from sun light, which will lessen the oils and zest. Once they are dry you can strip the leaves and place in a container for your culinary needs. Some of the sprigs will be especially nice, so wash them and cover with oil or vinegar. The jar of oil is a quick way to add essence to your cooking. Think about saving jars for this purpose. Give the oil or vinegar a few weeks to gain the flavor, and then you have a great gift for a holiday or house warming. I usually put a bow on the container. Use your tarragon vinegar in salads and add the garlic oil to your vegetables.

Another drying method is to strip the herb leaves laying them out on paper or a screen. A sweater screen is perfect.Depending on the dryness of the air, your herbs will be dry in a few days and you can put them in containers. Now, is the time to cut back the woody parts of the herbs and let them go to sleep for the winter. Or if you are in a very cold climate, it is time to bring them indoors.

So, now you have cut, dried and thinned the herb garden plants, you are not through yet. Another Autumn task is planting. YES! I said planting. Garlic, chives, french tarragon and thyme are great autumn plants. Those of us in hot region can plant dill and parsley in the Fall. While you are planting your bulbs of narcissi include your herbs as saffron.

Autumn is a wonderful time of the year to be out in your home herb garden clipping, thinning and planting. The Fall weather is a perfect time to be in your herb garden plants. You will enjoy your dry herbs in your favorite recipes.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.