Herb Spiral Garden Tips
What is an Herb spiral? Mia Cover from Mia’s Little Farm explains the reasons and benefits of planting an Herb Spiral. The beauty of an herb spiral is that it creates many different microclimates, which allows many different types of herbs to be planted in the same area. In Mia’s herb spiral, she is able to grow many different kinds of herbs such as rosemary, sage, chives, garlic chives, basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, chamomile, and yarrow, all in the same spiral!
Join us as Mia walks us through how to get started with an herb spiral, how to harvest and dry herbs, and how to save the seeds of your beloved herbs for use in next year’s garden.
Drying Herbs
Once harvested, Rosemary and sage can be bunched together using kitchen twine and hung to dry. Once they have dried, the bunches can be used as a fragrant decoration or put into mason jars for later use in the kitchen. When you are ready to use some of your dried herbs in your cooking, remove them from the mason jars and pull off the dried leaves. For thyme and oregano, use a dehydrator to dry them then store in mason jars.
SEE ALSO: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR HARVESTING AND STORING HERBS
SEE ALSO: GROWING HERBS FOR HOT WINTER TEA
Seed Saving
Have an awesome herb garden this year? Great news! You can save seeds for many of your culinary herbs to plant next year. Basil, cilantro and dill seeds can easily be taken from the blooms and put into jars to plant next year. If you toast your cilantro seeds, they become the spice coriander, and you can use them in the kitchen all year long!
SEE ALSO: 6 TIPS TO ORGANIZE YOUR OWN SEED SWAP
Herb Spiral Garden Pond
A mini-pond in your herb spiral will provide moisture for plants that thrive in a wetter environment and will allow water to trickle down and feed your plants. It will also attract beneficial insects to your herb spiral and provide them with a cool drink of water. Adding tall flowers for shade around your herb spiral will help to protect plants that thrive in cooler environments and will keep your mini-pond cool for those insects to have a cool place to drink. If you see caterpillars climbing on some plants, leave the plants where they are until the caterpillars are done with them. Then your garden will be full of beautiful butterflies.
Herb Spiral Garden Maintenance
Take the necessary steps to ensure your perennials will come back again next year. Some perennial herbs like rosemary can be rooted as a backup. To root your rosemary, strip the bottom half of sprigs and plant them in pots indoors near a sunny window. Later on, you can move them back outdoors. Most other perennial herbs can be cut down, and after winter, they will grow back just as strong as ever.
SEE ALSO: HARVESTING AND STORING HERBS FOR WINTER
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About the Author:
Mia Cover is an avid home gardener and beekeeper, and runs a garden club at an inner-city high school. She lives with her husband and kids on a tiny urban farm in Nashville, TN.
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