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Anyone who has tasted fresh herbs will want to grow their own rather than rely on supermarket jars of dried herbs. In addition to culinary herbs that add flavor to your meals, many herbs can be used to make natural herbal remedies; the non-culinary herbs are not available commercially in all areas, so growing your own is an excellent alternative. Herbs make a great addition to your garden or can be grown on a deck or in a sunny window in pots. And growing herbs organically is no more difficult than using chemicals.
There are two gardening issues that could make a gardener consider going with a chemical solution, soil fertilization and pest control. Neither is necessary.
For soil fertility and to improve soil composition, the best solution is an organic one: compost. Organic compost can be purchased, or you can make your own. A large compost pile or bin is not necessary for the smaller garden; there are tumbling composters available that take the heavy lifting out of composting, and create usable compost much more quickly than the traditional pile.
Clearing out a harvested section of the garden should give you plenty of vegetable matter for your compost. If you're going to add grass clippings, make sure to let them dry first; fresh clippings piled up will decompose too 'hot' and ruin your compost. A lidded can beside the sink should remind you to compost much of your kitchen refuse. Coffee grounds, egg shells, and vegetable peels are excellent material. Do NOT include meat scraps or pet waste, as these can spread disease and attract vermin to your compost.
Using chemical sprays to control garden insects is a losing proposition. The indiscriminate sprays don't just kill the insects that eat your herbs and vegetables, but also kill the insects that eat those insects. It is far better to recruit some allies.
Put up a purple martin house. Martins have been nesting in human-provided boxes for hundreds of years, to the point where they prefer them to nesting in trees. Add a few pottery toad houses around the garden perimeter. In addition to their homes being an attractive addition to your yard, the day-feeding martins and night-feeding toads will provide you with around the clock pest patrol.
If you see praying mantises and ladybugs in your garden, welcome them. These insects will eat the leaf eating insects. Ladybugs can even be purchased to be released in your garden.
If you are only gardening for herbs, you will have a lot fewer problems with pests than a vegetable gardener would; insects are less likely to feast on these aromatic plants. If you're incorporating herbs into a vegetable garden, make use of their bug repelling properties by spacing your annual herbs among the vegetables rather than segregating them to their own area of the garden.
Perennial herbs can be placed at the edges of your garden and will come back every year in the right climate. Some perennials, like the mint family, are voracious spreaders, and should be confined to their beds with a plastic or other impermeable edging driven into the ground to prevent them from taking over the garden.
In the garden, on the deck or windowsill, in a patch beside the kitchen door, home grown herbs can add a lovely aroma and old-world feel to your home, without the introduction of harsh chemicals and poisons to your environment. |
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