Monday, December 1, 2008

Grow Aromatherapy Herbs at Home!




Grow Aromatherapy Herbs at Home!Learning how to grow herbs is a rewarding and healthy activity. When you grow herbs at home, you can save money by using the herbs for cooking or for creating aromatherapy essential oils. These edible plants are not only useful, but also quite beautiful and a real enhancement to your garden, patio or deck. Successfully raising herbs at home begins with selecting the right plants for your setting and climate.
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What Herbs Can You Grow?Not all plants grow well indoors. While you can opt for a strictly outdoor herb garden, it's nice to have at least some plants inside where you can enjoy them and their benefits year round. (If you are interested in incorporating herbs into your yard or garden, talk to a professional at your local plant nursery to find out which herbs will survive well in your native climate, how much sunlight and water the herbs require, and how to protect the plants during the winter months.)So, what herbs grow inside? For the beginner, good choices include mint, basil, rosemary, and oregano. Mint and rosemary have particular healing properties that you can use for aromatherapy and both are excellent when used in your favorite recipes. If you are going to grow herbs indoors, it's a good idea to start with one or more of these four plants since they are almost guaranteed to be successful and will give you greater confidence in your abilities when you're ready to add more herbs to your containers.Another good reason to grow your own herbs indoors is the fact that the plants do require some special care that your normal garden plants may not need. For instance, if you want your herbs to grow year round, with some plants you will need to reseed and to "deadhead" the plants to keep them from dying in the winter. These things are more easily done in a container garden where you can bring the pots up to a good working level than outdoors where you'll be spending a lot of time on your knees bending over. Also, you can provide the proper drainage in a container garden as herbs are bad to get "water logged." In fact, you can buy "grow your own herbs" kits from most plant nurseries or home improvement stores that will help you to accomplish all the basics of indoor herb gardening with with less work -- and they come with helpful instructions.
Materials You Will NeedIf you are going to grow herbs indoors, you will need certain materials including:
eight inch clay jars
potting mix that does not contain soil
some pottery shards
selected herbs as starter plants
liquid fertilizerOnce you have assembled these materials, you're ready to begin preparing your indoor garden.

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