My first attempt (which I mention in “Mint – the weed that just keeps going“, I planted it in my herb garden, and very soon discovered that it was a VERY bad idea. So I had to rip it up.

For my second attempt, I planted it in small pots, which you can see here: Planting Mint where you want it.

Planting the mint in pots was definitely a better idea, but the pots were a bit too small. A visitor (June Tate) left this comment:

I’ve tried planting mint in pots, and it gets horribly rootbound–all roots, no dirt. The mint was a gift from a friend, and I’ve passed it on to many people. Maybe I just need a BIG pot to plant it in?

So, I’ve decided to try out the “planting mint in a BIG pot” method.

I’m going to keep this site updated with my progress on growing and maintaining the mint plants. Especially since I saw a show on BBC Food about growing herbs, and they mentioned that mint needs to be cut back every now and again because it gets straggly.

But, to start things off, here are a couple of photos of what the mint looks like now. It will be interesting to see how bushy these plants get, as they look kind of lame, so small in such a big pot.

You can click on an image to view the larger version…

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So, if you’re thinking of creating a herb garden, think about reading my series of articles on the topic, starting off with this one: “Herb Garden in 24 hours”

So, what are my favourite herbs in my garden?

Basil

The leaves of the basil bush are used in a LOT of Italian dishes (check out the recipes on this site for ideas). And, with the leaves being so fragrant, when you water this bush the smells coming from it are amazing.

But apart from the smells, the flowers are a beautiful purple, which the bees love. In a strange way, it seems to attract odd looking bees as well. I’ve seen a purple bee with black stripes.

Please excuse the photos here as my digital camera is broken and I’m waiting for the “Canon EOS 40D” to come out before I buy a new one…

Lemon Grass

There are quite a few recipes that use this herb, but it’s not in my top 5 for that reason. This plant is more of a conversation starter due to the amazing lemon smell in the actual leaves. When having parties, I make sure to capture the poor souls who’ve never seen my herb garden before and make them smell the herbs. And the lemon grass is almost always a surprise.

Thyme

Thyme is another herb that is used a lot in cooking. My favourite food with thyme is sweet potato chips. These are oven-grilled, so they’re extremely healthy, and this herb adds a great flavour to them.

You get quite a variety of thyme plants, including a lemon-scented one, so if you want to add thyme to your garden, take your time and shop around.

Rosemary

This herb is used a lot in lamb dishes, though I think it’s great to add to most meat recipes. And Jamie Oliver has a great recipe for roast potatoes with Rosemary salt. We use this herb a lot at home, so it was a great addition to the garden.

A little tip with Rosemary: if you pick some and let it dry for a couple of days, it gets a lot more fragrant…

Chili

I love spicy food, within reason. And growing your own chillies gives you the control over how much you use. You don’t have to feel like you paid for it so you have to use it. And, if you don’t want your food TOO spicy, you can just remove the seeds. My chili plant is another plant that is used a LOT at home.

The moral of the story here: if you’re growing a herb garden, try to plant herbs that you think you’ll use. It adds extra satisfaction knowing that it doesn’t just look pretty, but is actually useful.

It’s also an incentive to actually look after it, which can be necessary for those non-green-fingered people like myself.

—===—

This article on was inspired by Darren Rowse’s “Top 5 – Group Writing Project“.

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | Top 5 Herbs in my Herb Garden | 5 comments. Click here to add yours... |

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I recently planted Sage in my Herb Garden. Sage is definitely a must-have for everybody who cooks, as it is a great addition to many meals. ESPECIALLY if you enjoy Jamie Oliver’s cooking.

Anyway, after planting any plant, it is key to ensure that the roots get sufficient water to prevent them going into shock. At least, that’s how I see it. So I watered the Sage thoroughly. And I watered it again the next day, and the next. I didn’t DROWN the plant, but I made sure that it had water.

BUT, the Sage started drooping. Admittedly, it was in the middle of a hot spell here in South Africa, so I thought that once the temperature cooled down, things would start to perk up a bit.

Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

The Lesson

I asked a herb specialist what went wrong, and he said that Sage does not like water. Obviously it NEEDS water, but only a little, otherwise it will die.

So there we go. I’ll be trying again, but this time I’m going to plant the Sage in a pot. This way I will be able to take it out of the rain if needed, and have more control over the plant.

I just thought I’d share this with you… Any other tips?

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“In my previous post, I mentioned how mint was a weed in my opinion. You can read it here:

“Mint – the weed that just keeps going”

Anyway, even though it is a weed, it still looks good and smells GREAT! So, almost everyone wants to grow it, including me. But I wasn’t about to let it loose in my herb garden again.

Another issue we were having in our garden is with 2 hanging pots on our wall where the flowers just ALWAYS seemed to die. I guess it was because the pots were small, and couldn’t take too much water, and that they seemed to get direct sunlight almost the whole day.

So we had a brainwave. Plant an almost unkillable weed in a place that kills almost anything, and hope the mint comes out the winner. And it has. We are watering the mint about 2 or 3 times a week, but if we skip a week, the mint just sags a bit. But when we water it, about 10 minutes later, it’s up again.

We bought spearmint and chocolate mint, and they really brighten up the wall. And visitors just LOVE breaking off some leaves and smelling them. It’s a great conversation starter, a great decoration, and when I write-up my wife’s Iced Tea with mint recipe, you’ll see it’s a great addition to the kitchen.

So don’t go giving up on your mint just yet. Plant it in a pot, and make it a feature./mint-the-weed-that-just-keeps-going/”>Mint – the weed that just keeps going”

Anyway, even though it is a weed, it still looks good and smells GREAT! So, almost everyone wants to grow it, including me. But I wasn’t about to let it loose in my herb garden again.

Another issue we were having in our garden is with 2 hanging pots on our wall where the flowers just ALWAYS seemed to die. I guess it was because the pots were small, and couldn’t take too much water, and that they seemed to get direct sunlight almost the whole day.

So we had a brainwave. Plant an almost unkillable weed in a place that kills almost anything, and hope the mint comes out the winner. And it has. We are watering the mint about 2 or 3 times a week, but if we skip a week, the mint just sags a bit. But when we water it, about 10 minutes later, it’s up again.

We bought spearmint and chocolate mint, and they really brighten up the wall. And visitors just LOVE breaking off some leaves and smelling them. It’s a great conversation starter, a great decoration, and when I write-up my wife’s Iced Tea with mint recipe, you’ll see it’s a great addition to the kitchen.

So don’t go giving up on your mint just yet. Plant it in a pot, and make it a feature.

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | Planting Mint where you want it | 5 comments. Click here to add yours... |

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My definition of “weed” is something that grows where you don’t want it, and is really hard (nearly impossible) to get rid of. If you have any weeds in your garden, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Anyway, if there’s one tip I can give you for planting mint is to plant it in a pot. Whether you want it in the ground or not, plant it in a pot that will keep the roots in check. And, make sure that you will be able to see if the roots are growing out of the pot, for example, over the top, or through any holes in the bottom of the pot.

I made the mistake of planting mint in my herb garden, and within a couple of months, the roots had come out the pot, and spread practically EVERYWHERE! I decided to pull the mint out of the ground, and I was surprised to see that this little plant had grown roots as thick as my thumb and about a meter long.

So, PLEASE be careful when planting mint. It is a great plant to have, especially if you want to add it to your food or your home-made ice tea.

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In the post “Herb Garden – Before and After“, the herb/bush on the very right hand-side of the herb garden (excluding the lavender bush next to the wall) is my Basil tree. It is one of the best growing herbs I have in my herb garden, so I thought I would share something with you that I recently learned.

With any type of herb, if it starts to flower, you MUST prune/cut off the flower as soon as you can. Otherwise your herb will start to taste a bit “woody”.

I didn’t know that, and thought that the Basil flowers were a great looking addition to my herb garden. But I did notice that the Basil leaves were starting to taste very “plant-like”. So, I cut the bush back quite a bit, and pruned every flower, nipping it quite low down on the branch. I noticed that the Basil flowers (at least on my Basil tree) grow like a trident, so I cut the flowers off just below the start of “trident”.

After a couple of weeks, my Basil leaves were starting to taste quite good again.

Which is a good, thing, considering my Italian wife loves cooking with Basil.

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2007. | A tip for looking after your Basil Bush | Only one comment. Click here to add yours... |

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Here is what the herb garden looked like JUST before completion:

Here is what the herb garden looks like after 6 months of growth:

If you’re thinking of creating a herb garden like this, it’s REALLY easy, and you can check out the process I followed here:
Step 1 – Mark out your area
Step 2 – Remove the grass
Step 3 – Laying the stepping stones
Step 4 – Plant the herbs
Step 5 – Look after it

© James for Make a good house a GREAT home, 2006. | Herb Garden – Before and After | 3 comments. Click here to add yours... |

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Your gall bladder plays an important role in the breaking down of fats in the food you ingest due to the bile that the gall bladder stores. But, reading up on herbs, I noticed that a lot of people are selling Milk Thistle extracts which have been shown to help improve the functioning of your gall bladder.

I just thought I would share this piece of info with you, even if the only thing it does is let you know about it… And, to show you another hardy and possibly pretty plant that you could have in your garden… Of course, I’m hoping to at least get some more info on herbs that you can actually use from your herb garden.

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Once the kidneys are detoxified, a healthy flow of nutrients are free to make their way to the scalp where they promote healthy hair growth.

Here are list of the top 10 most effective herbs for detoxification.

1. Camomile – a great relaxant and good for the stomach, which helps if you’re tense. It reduces inflammation and it’s a tissue healer – inhale the azulenes given off in the steam to soothe the inflamed mucous membranes of the nose, throat and chest.

2. Skullcap – skutellaria – improves functioning of nervous system; calming effect- it’s good if you’re frazzled .

3. Yarrow – tones the blood vessels and helps you purge toxins by sweating them out.

4. Peppermint – calming, good for the stomach, clears the head, relaxing – and it tastes nice!

5. Elderflower – decongestant, soothing to the mucous membranes; helps to clear out the mucous and catarrh that settles in the lungs of most smokers.

6. Ground Ivy – also decongestant and helps clear out mucous and catarrh.

7. Liquorice – this is an adrenal tonic, so it will perk you up and stop you missing the ‘hit’ of the nicotine quite so much. It’s also demulcent – soothing on the throat – so if you have a smokers cough, this will help. You can get liquorice root as sticks, that you can chew if you want to have something in your fingers and your mouth – good if you’re used to cigarettes as a ‘prop’ – and you can use chunks of liquorice root in the tea.

8. Sarsaparilla root increases the flow of urine and breaks up gas. Classified generally as a blood purifier, it is commonly used for various eruptive skin disorders.

9. Milk Thistle seeds are used for liver, gall bladder and spleen support. It is commonly used as a liver protector when consumed before meals and alcohol consumption.

10. Red Clover is a blood purifier that is mild and mineral-rich. It is good for the general prevention of health problems and may be consumed freely without any known side effects.

Your outer appearance is a pure reflection of how you take care of your inner body. A healthy body, mind, and spirit can be effected by many outside forces. Impurities can be hidden in our air, food, and water, and a build up of toxins can lead to poor digestion, fatigue, lowered immunity, and skin problems.

We urge you to start detoxifying easily by first starting off with some detox teas. There are so many brands which works effectively in detoxifying your body! Start living healthy today!

:::::::::

Detox Tea is a detoxifying product that holds the toxins in your body allowing you to pass a urine drug test. Find out at http://DetoxTea.eabout.info

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There are a couple of things to note regarding the herb garden:

• It needs some water at least a couple of times a week in Summer, but it’s winter here, and it seems to survive on water once a week
• You have to remove the weeds and other unwanted growth – this includes removing the grass that you’ll find growing in the actual herb garden
• Be careful with what herbs you use – My mint is growing like CRAZY!!! Luckily still in it’s own section

If you have a herb garden and you’d like to share your advice, please do so in the comments section. I could use all the advice I can get…

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