How to Grow Organic Herbs by Jeannie Woods, author of Healthy Happy Herbs   Growing organic herbs, either indoors or in your garden, is a fun engaging activity, especially when it comes to harvest time. Your own herb garden provides you with a handy source of fresh and pesticide-free produce. You can also grow herbs for medicinal reasons. Here’s how to start your own herb garden.

Herb selection

For growing indoors in small pots and containers, the following herbs are your best choices because they are fairly small and thrive well even in semi-shaded areas:  chives, dill, mint, basil, oregano, thyme, coriander, rosemary, and sage. If there is not enough natural light to make the plants grow, then you might want to use HID grow lights for your potted small herbs. When it comes to an outdoor herb garden, you can practically grow anything you want.

Watering

Water just enough to moisten the soil. Overwatering leads to root rot and plant death. If the soil has grown soggy from too much water, then that may cause fungal root rot. If you grow different herbs together in a single container, then you may want to group the plants that have the same watering requirements. For example, plant mint and parsley together because they thrive well in moist soil. As for thyme, rosemary, and sage, they do well in slightly moistened soil.

Fertilizing

Herbs and spices usually require minimal fertilizing. If you want to apply fertilizer, then resort to compost. Your food scraps, fallen leaves, and other organic garden wastes can all be turned into compost. Moreover, you may also want to control the pH of the soil because pH has a direct effect on how well plants absorb soil nutrients. For herbs, semi-acidic to a neutral pH (between 6 and 7) is ideal. To adjust soil pH, add oyster shell lime to elevate the pH and mix sulfur to lower it.

Learn more about growing and taking care of herbs. Visit My Home Herb Garden at myhomeherbgarden.com To check out Jeannie Woods’ book, go to healthyhappyherbs.com