Fresh herbs add delicious flavour to a variety of foods, and offer loads of health benefits too. Sure, you can always use dry herbs or buy fresh herbs at the store, but growing your own herbs offers so many benefits. With the rich amount of sun, water and organic soil, most herbs are quite easy to grow. It’s definitely worth making the effort to grow your own herbs!
Here are 8 reasons you should try growing your own herbs this year:
1. Easy Access to Fresh Herbs
Buying herbs from the store may seem easy, but fresh herbs can quickly go bad. Having your own herb garden means you can have any herb you want on hand that will be fresh whenever you need it.
2. You’ll Save Money
Herbs at grocery stores or even farmers markets can be quite pricey, especially if you are trying to make some delicious sauces or pesto that need larger quantities. You can save quite a bit of money by pulling the herbs from your garden without the stress of running out to the store, because more herbs will continue to grow from your initial investment of seeds or starter plants.
3. Herbs are Good for You
Fresh herbs offer many health benefits. Many herbs are anti-inflammatory, high in antioxidants and help aid in digestion. You can get all these benefits from your own herb garden without worrying about also ingesting harmful pesticides.
4. They’re Beautiful and Smell Fabulous
Herbs are highly aromatic and pleasing to the eye. They make great additions to your garden if you want to add a few pops of color, like purple from lavender. Feverfew is another beautiful herb with flowers that look like small daisies with a bright yellow center and white petals. Fresh herbs make lovely additions to a flower bouquets, or even a few sprigs in a small glass or vase will brighten up any room in your house.
5. Herbs are Fun and Easy to Grow
Most herbs are quite easy to grow, which makes them ideal for gardening newbies. You can grow herbs outdoors in the garden or containers or even inside on windowsills or other areas of the house that have adequate sunlight.
6. You’ll Have More Variety
A home herb garden offers what most stores can’t and that is variety. There are hundreds of herbs to choose from if you grow your own, whereas the selection you’ll find in stores is much more limited.
7. They Provide Some Pest Control
If you are having trouble keeping insects or other pests out of your garden, then plant herbs such as basil, mint, lavender or rosemary. These herbs are known to repel pests due to their strong scents. Citrus scented herbs like lemon balm or lemon verbena can also help keep mosquitos away.
8. The Taste Is Exceptional
Fresh herbs offer the best flavour. That is because when picked, herbs release an oil that is responsible for their flavor. This oil breaks down quickly, which is why herbs are best fresh from the garden and have such a rich flavour when first picked.
As you can see, there are plenty of reasons why you should be growing your own herbs. Your taste buds and wallet will thank you over and over, and you will no longer need to make multiple trips to keep fresh herbs in your kitchen.
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