Add flowers to your herb garden to make it even prettier.

Herb garden plants are becoming more and more popular every day, and for a good reason.

If you’re not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and maintaining an herb garden.

When you’re ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy the plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants.

Go here for some great ideas on which herb garden plants to choose.

Herbs have practical value, serve a purpose, and with herb gardening you can actually use your plants. And herb garden plants are not just for cooking. Many gardeners have an herb garden for their pleasant aroma and their beauty.

By the way, when it comes time to harvest the herbs, be careful not to take off too much. If your herb garden plants aren’t well established, it isn’t healthy to take any leaves at all. You should wait until your plant has been well established for at least several months before taking off any leaves.

One important part of herb gardening is drying the herbs properly.  The process begins with drying them out. Place them on a cookie sheet and baking them at 170 degrees Fahrenheit for two to four hours. After they’re sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, keep them in a plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it absorbs the taste of the herbs. Also, during the first few days of storage, check the container to see if any moisture has accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them to prevent mildew.

Basil: This one of the most popular herb garden plants. ‘Dark Opal’ and regular green basil are beautiful (and tasty) additions to any herb garden. Dark Opal has light pink flowers and dark red leaves.

Chives: Very petite looking and resemble a blade of grass. But they’re much stronger than they look. They will do well in a drought. Their toughness and sturdiness makes chives a perfect herb garden plant. Chives are good used in salads, egg dishes, and many different sauces.

Mint: This also very simple to grow. It’s used in mint jelly, mint juleps, lemonade, and any other kind of fruity drink. Mint is also good herb garden plant because of its unique minty smell.

Thyme and sage: These two herbs that appear in nearly everyone’s herb garden. Both of these favorites are used for flavoring soups, chicken, turkey, pork, and other sausages. Sage is also grown sometimes just because of its beautiful blue spiked flowers.

Lavender: This probably the best smelling herb in anyone’s herb garden. It’s often used in candles, as a perfume scent, and to improve the smell in linen chests. The light purple flowers smell absolutely lovely.

Other types of herb garden plants: They can include borage (used in salads), chervil (used in egg dishes), sweet marjoram (flavors lamb, fish, salad, and soup), sesame (flavors crackers, cookies, and bread), and dill (flavors meats and used in pickles).

As you can see, an herb garden lets gardeners use herbs from their own garden for cooking, looks, and even for a great smell.