Growing Herbs

BritMumInCanada

Gold Member
I bought a mixture of herbs today and a large pot, as the amount of fresh herbs I go through I figured it will be far cheaper growing my own ones.

Does anyone else grow their own?

I will have to grow them inside, what with the freezing weather here at the moment.

Any tips appreciated??
 
Hey yeah I grow my own, I have a very bright kitchen window, and I have Basil, thyme, coriander, parsley, mint, and chives growing on there. I also have a speciality mint in the garden for the summer, nice in salads. Plan on converting one of my beds into a herb garden this year. I LOVE my herbs fresh. It makes a HUGE difference to the flavour of my food. I really notice it. I mean when I use fresh thyme and parsley in my lamb stew you can really taste the difference to dry herbs. I highly recommend it!

Always water your herbs from the bottom in a saucer, keep the soil moist if growing inside if they get dry they will wither. Most recover, but coriander can be a little sensitive. They like lots of light. A heated greenhouse will keep them all year round, but I don't have one, so my kitchen windowsill has to do the job, they dont like getting cold but my kitchen is always lovely and warm. So a good environment.
 
Also must add that fresh herbs in things like burger's and your own sausages or meatballs is AMAZING!

This is why I bought a food processor this year, I just shove it all in, add the herbs, and whizz it, all done.

Its my favourite gadjet, along with my hand blender, and microwave veggie steamer lol
 
What herbs do you use in your burgers? I usualy shove some tried herbs in with mine, and sometimes they can be pretty bland!
 
yep I love fresh herbs, I only use dried if fresh is not available, but buying them every week works out pretty expensive, so decided it was about time I grew my own. I sadly couldn't find any seeds for mint though which I love, but once the snow is gone and summer is here, I am sure there will be some growing somewhere in the garden, there was last summer, so will grab some of that.

Fresh Coriander is so good. I love it.

Thanks for the tips.
 
What herbs do you use in your burgers? I usualy shove some tried herbs in with mine, and sometimes they can be pretty bland!

It depends what sort of burgers you are making. I love mint or rosemary in lamb burgers or lamb meatballs.

Coriander works well with fishcakes or chicken/turkey burgers, as does tarragon or thyme.

I don't tend to put herbs in my homemade beef burgers, just very finely chopped onion, worcestershire sauce and black pepper. I like to taste just the beef. Sometimes if I want a kick, I will put in some finely chopped red chilli pepper (if I am lucky enough to find some, there are not easily found in the supermarkets here, so I sometims have to resort to chilli flakes)

I do put herbs in my beef meatballs, mainly basil or oregano etc.
 
Coriander is lovely in meatballs. you can make it quiet spicy. I quite like adding cumin and paprika with ginger. Italian seasoning like basil, oregano and marjoram is nice in burgers. You can get a mix called piri piri thats makes spicy meatballs or burgers too.

BMIC .... Have you tried tour supermarket for growing herbs, Asda here (owned by walmart) sell the herbs growing, that's where I bought most of mine from.
 
yeah they don't do the growing herbs unfortunately, they just do them pre cut in packets which don't last long and are pretty expensive, that is what I have been buying, they dont do a very wide range either, so some herbs I have to use dried, which is a pain.

I know everything here has to have both French and English information on it, so maybe that is why. I could probably get some growing herbs in the US, but I wouldnt be able to bring it across the border.

You can buy them growing in home/garden stores, but again very expensive as they are all fancy in mini terracotta pots, so figured it would be cheaper just getting a big pot and some seeds and growing them myself.

How ever I am not sure I have very green fingers, so we shall see. lol
 
Use an old big coke bottle with the end cut off, to use as a mini propagator....get a pot the coke bottle will fit over...fill with good compost...put the seeds on top of the compost, and using a sieve do a very gentle thin layer on top of the seeds. Sprinkle water onto them. Keep them in a warm place with light...windowsill is ideal...your mini propagator keeps the heat in and the condensation waters them. Its a good way of growing your own seeds without a huge outlay of a propagator.
 
To be honest I wouldn't grow mint from seed. It would take too long to get a crop. I get my thyme, rosemary and tarragon plants from our local nursery and 3 sorts of mint. I grow them all in pots which get moved into the greenhouse for winter. All except the rosemary which was in the ground and has been killed by our winter :(. I grow parsley, 3 sorts of basil and chervil from seed. I can't believe I didn't use fresh herbs for the best part of 50 years :eek: they make such a difference.
You can find out about herbs on the Grow Your Own website.
 
I grow my own parsley. If kept indoors in the winter on a sunny windowsill you can grow it all year round. I like flat leaf parsley (as opposed to curly leaf).
I get a pot and sow a gtood handful of seeds and then cover then with a light sprinkling of soil. Water. I then place clingfilm over the pot and secure with an elastic band. Leave on a sunny widowsill (you will see condensation appears on the inside of the clingfilm, this is normal) and after about 5-7 days very small shoots will appear. I leave them for a couple more days then remove the clingfilm and water lightly, and leave. It takes another 10 days or so, once they start coming up they dont stop. I tend to grab a handful and cut using scissors when needed. In the summer you can put the pot outside. I've also tried basil as well, but dont tend to use so much of it. Hope this helps
 
I grow loads of my own fruit, veg & herbs - it saves a fortune. Just make sure that they are not in a draught & keep them watered but not too wet, also make sure when you harvest you do not take the growing tips otherwise the plants will be over pretty quickly. If you can grow inside then why not try starting off some peppers & chillies, these grow really well inside, once the weather gets better over there you can put them outside but make sure to bring them in if the temperature is going to dip again. The good thing about chillies & peppers is that they are really easy plants to look after, you don't even need to feed them very often but you still get a fab crop of veg.
 
I've managed to keep some basil going on my cold, north facing kitchen window sill this year so I'm really pleased! My flat leaf parsley has survived the winter in the green house and is putting on a growth spurt inside and out and the rosemary is still great, shame yours got killed Judimac :-(

I grow thyme and mint too.

The only thing I struggle with is coriander, it goes to see sooooo quickly, I sow it every week through the year to try and get a bit of a crop!

Fresh herbs are fab :)
 
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