Trade Secrets of Growing Herbs In Your Own Herb Garden

Herbs are one of the most fascinating gifts to mankind. Since the beginning of recorded history herbs have always been there making life a little bit better. The plants that produce these wonder products are regaining favor with gardeners and herb gardening is becoming a popular pursuit these days.

In addition to providing mouthwatering food flavorings herbs provide other benefits including: fragrances, medicinal remedies, dyes, landscaping, pest control, dyes and industrial applications. The range of products produced by herb plants is amazing and can be an exciting addition to any home garden project.

If you are new to herb gardening you may wonder what is a herb specifically?
The botanical definition is that they are simply a seed bearing plant with fleshy parts. The dictionary definition of a herb plant is that it is a flowering plant whose stem above the ground is not or does not become woody. In everyday lexicon the more loose description of herb plants is any plant with leaves, roots, stems, fruits or flowers that exhibit any of the phenomenon ascribed to herbs plants. The family of herbs has 73 recognized types distributed among the four herb use classifications.

Culinary herbs are generally the most well known of the herb family. Herbs are a popular addition to our food of today and there are indications that man has always used herbs to improve the taste of food. Some writers suggest that in ancient times the quality of food required the addition of herbs to make it edible. The Romans took over 200 herbs with them when they invaded the British Isles in 54 AD and those same type herbs are still used today in England. An exciting aspect of growing herbs in your own garden is that you are in a small way connected to the Romans of old because they raised the very same herbs being cultivated by gardeners today. The more popular culinary herbs include: savory, thyme, garlic, rosemary and basil.

Medicinal herbs are a very interesting herb type. They are known as Mother Nature's medicine chest supplier. There are many hundreds of herbs that provide medicinal benefits. They were about the only thing available to man for curative relief for sickness, injuries and other common maladies prior to the advent of modern medicine. And it is believed that herbal remedies were the inspiration for many of the drugs used today. Even with the availability of manufactured drugs for medical problems in the United States today over 175 herb based medicinal products are sold to the public with annual sales of over $3 billion.

Aromatic herbs are a delight with their wonderful fragances and make a very pleasant addition to any garden or planting project. For centuries they were used as natural air fresheners. The aromas come from the oils in the plants and can be extracted to make perfumes and other scented items. Strolling through a garden with aromatic herbs is a very pleasant experience.

Herb gardening is not only fun and rewarding it is much easier than traditional vegetable or fruit gardening. Herb plants are a hardy group that require little care. With all this in mind why don't you start your own herb garden?