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Herbs add the aroma that stimulate your appetite and perk up your senses. The strong, pungent odors fill your nostrils and tease your taste buds and are said to enhance beauty and prolong life. So when planting your garden consider adding herbs that you like to use as part of your cooking. These herbs will become long term companions of your gardening and cooking experience.

If you stop to think,

What would a simple tomato salad be without a few freshly cut basil leaves?

What would roast chicken be without a sprig of sage?

What would Asian cooking be without fresh coriander leaves?

Boring!

Just plain boring!

The herbs in my garden that are truly my companions to the food I make include rosemary, oregano, basil, mint, parsley, fennel, sage and coriander. They are very easy to grow and in true herb fashion they do not require rich, fine soils. They grow well and lush with little care and no special treatment. Keep them watered, keep them weed free and pest free, and you will continually have fine and healthy plants to pick and use in your salads, cooking and tea making.

Home grown herbs do not compare to the flavours, aroma and taste, of market bought herbs. Your garden herbs are packed with extra zest and full bodied tang. Often just a few leaves added to your salad or meal is all you need as the aroma is very intense and concentrated.

Be careful where you plant your herbs as they are often very vigorous growers and extremely robust that they can quickly take over a garden patch. Not all bad though, as they certainly add to your vegetable or flower garden. Bees are certainly attracted to the flowering herbs in abundance.

Some herbs need to be picked and dried and stored to be enjoyed and used throughout the year. This includes your oregano which can be used fresh from your garden when available and it stores extremely well dry. Dry oregano retains its flavour perfectly to be used in your cooking all through the year.

When cooking lamb, I love to use rosemary. The aroma is so intense you just can't wait to eat it. Yummy!

Many people find it hard to grow coriander. Just don't give up so easy. It took me many tries before successfully harvesting a few spindly plants and since then I have never looked back. Coriander needs to be continually sown so that you have a good fresh supply on hand as it does have a short life span. Collect its seed pods, dry them extremely well and store them to use in your recipes.

Sometimes a herb is happiest and grows best in the morning sun or the evening sun or a slightly shady spot. It is worth experimenting to find that perfect spot. Once you grow your own herbs, you will never buy them from the supermarket again. Why? Because you will be disappointed how bland and flavorless commercially grown herbs really are.

Growing your own home grown, sun kissed herbs is a very rewarding hobby and quickly becomes a way of life. The taste is phenomenal, the cost is little and the effort is minimal.

Give it a go you will be hooked.

Learn more about this author, Dina Psichogiopoulos.
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