Family Life Greener Living

I Want to Grow a Herb Garden

2013 was not a good year for my garden and yard. One of the reasons we bought our house was because it had a beautiful backyard, but ever since the kids came along it’s been sadly neglected. As my girls get older and spend more of their time outside, I want to have a nice well-tended backyard for them to play in. With an almost four year old and a toddler running amok, it seems impossible to find the time. We hired somebody to mow the lawn regularly, but the fruit trees and rosebushes need to be tended and pruned, everything needs to be fertilized, and moss is slowly taking over the lawn.

This year I’d like to budget for some ongoing lawn care, plant some flowers, and get to really enjoy our backyard. I have a sad little greenhouse in the yard that stands empty and forlorn. When we first moved in I had visions of starting a vegetable garden and eating at least part of the time from our own land. I know that’s not going to happen soon, but I think a manageable goal this year is to grow a herb garden. I’ve talked about it for years and never gotten around to it, but with all the cooking I’ve been doing over the last year and my growing skill with herbs and spices, I feel ready to try growing my own.

Herb Garden

My First Herbs” by wallygrom is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

I use a lot of fresh basil, rosemary, and cilantro in my cooking so I want to start with at least those herbs. Thyme and oregano would be nice, and maybe some jalapenos. I love fresh jalapenos.

I think I could make caring for a modest herb garden part of my routine with the kids, and it would be a great natural lesson for them in how plants grow. I’d love to grow some lavender too. I have this idea about making beautiful lavender sachets and gifting them to everyone I know. Well, maybe. I might be getting a little ahead of myself, but at least I’m getting motivated again.
 
 
What about you? Do you grow your own herbs or vegetables? I’d love any advice you have to share with me.

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8 Comments

  • We grow vegetables in raised beds and fruit. I also have multiple large herb gardens in our yard for my side herbal business. We started the raised beds before my daughter came along but she is a great help in the garden and loves to participate. She is now 2.5 years old and has grown up out in our gardens and helps in the spring with the compost and planting and has a great time with it. You should be able to manage the small herb garden this year and the key is to involve the kids right from the start. I involve my daughter in the plant and seed purchasing right through planting and care. She will do some of the harvesting herself when she gets home from daycare some nights, but we are ok with that as we have taught her where she is allowed to take vegetables or berries from. I find the key to keeping on top is to do a quick walk through each day to pull the one or two weeds that may be starting so that it does not get out of hand. The spring we do spend a couple full days prepping our gardens and cleaning them up good though and then the rest of the season it is nice and easy. I am not sure the long days will happen this spring with me being due with our second the beginning of May so we did try to prep as much as possible in the fall. Good luck. Any questions feel free to send me an email.

  • What a nice collection of herbs!
    My garden has two handicaps: my laziness, and my utter lack of gardening ability. I have always masked those by claiming to want a “natural” garden where plants follow Darwin’s rule (if you can’t survive on your own here you don’t belong here anyway). Actually, I use my “gardening” – raking, mowing, inept pruning – principally for being close to my children while they play outside without seeming to helicopter them. They’re on to it now, and have made my imaginary green thumb the butt of their jokes. But I have the last laugh, because they are both much better gardeners and I am, and plant their own flower beds now.

  • What a great goal…I also plan to start a garden this year…I’m both excited and if I were to be 100% honest, very nervous about the idea! I’ve never actually planted anything in my life…it should certainly be a new and interesting experience but well worth it if it all works out! Best of luck with your garden this year!

  • My kids love helping with gardening, so maybe by getting them involved, you’ll be able to find the time and inspiration to get a small garden going. Tomatoes and bell peppers are also very easy to care for and potatoes don’t need a lot of tending to. We did those foods in containers last year and it didn’t take a lot of time.

  • We have a garden and I have a 3 and 5 year old who LOVE to garden with Mommy! They just received mini gardening tools for Christmas and can’t wait to use them. We had a huge squash/zucchini/okra garden last year. But I do want to grow herbs…I’m kind of scared of them, to be honest! 🙂

  • I have a patio/container garden but it did horribly this year. We had a rat around and he ate everything that tried to grow. It was so sad. My thyme did amazing as did my green onions (regrew from scraps). This summer I hope my garden does better.

  • A long time ago when I had only one kid and was homeschooling him, we built 12 beds for our vegetable garden. We put in fruit trees and vines.

    Now I have 5 kids, and the vegetable garden was very sadly neglected last year. This year, we’re cutting back to building one or two permanent raised beds. We’re just so busy right now, and our yard requires a lot of maintenance. My herb bed is a lasagna style bed we built over a pile of wood chips from a tree we took down.

  • If I had a little patch of land I would love to grow an herb garden. I live in an apartment so I am thinking about indoor container gardening as a way to grow organic herbs. Wish me luck!
    I’m delighted to meet you and to discover your blog through the Natural Living Blog Carnival!
    What a fun and inspiring opportunity this is.
    I am following, sharing–and look forward to reading your posts regularly.
    All the best, Deb