BOISE – Last week on You Can Grow It, garden master Jim Duthie told us all about basil, which is the most popular herb that people grow in their home gardens. We even made some tasty pesto sauce, which is the most common use for basil.
Today, Jim shows us how we can expand our herb garden, and he introduces us to several more types of herbs that would be great to have right outside your kitchen door. And, as usual, he says you can grow it.
If you do a lot of cooking, and like to use fresh herbs, then you’ll appreciate a productive herb garden. And herbs are easy to grow, whether they’re in the ground, or in containers.
Even if you don’t use them a lot in cooking, the plants are beautiful, and they smell great. It’s fun to run your hand through the leaves and enjoy the different fragrances.
So let’s take a look at some of the more popular herbs that you definitely want to include in your garden, along with a few not so common varieties of these herbs, just to shake things up a bit.
Almost all of these herbs are perennials, which means that they’ll come back year after year. Put them in a mostly sunny spot, with some well-drained soil, and they should do just fine.
A couple of exceptions are annuals, and have to be replanted each spring, like basil, which we talked about last week, and cilantro and parsley. Cilantro and parsley are related, and look a lot alike, but they have very different flavors. Cilantro has a stronger, spicier flavor. The leaf of the plant is called cilantro, and its seeds are called coriander. Both are used in different kinds of cooking. Cilantro is very popular in Mexican dishes, especially salsas.
Parsley has a much milder flavor, and is used more as a garnish. Parsley is a biennial, which means that it does well for two seasons, and then it becomes less productive and should be replanted. It comes in the common leafy variety, or this curled leaf kind.
Among the perennials, oregano comes in dozens of varieties, and each one has a distinctive fragrance and…
