I love cooking and trying out new recipes from my ever-growing collection of recipe books. Sometimes the recipes call for exciting and interesting fresh herbs, which I have to go out and buy. Now, in these times of crunching credit, a new hobby has come about – recession gardening! It’s simply the practice of growing your own herbs or vegetables, in your own home garden. This should save you some money (perhaps not in the short term) and you’ll get delicious fresh produce to eat! Plus, when you’re trying out those new, exciting recipes, you’ll have the fresh herbs close to hand, in your personal herb garden.
For those of you who are green-minded, you can be safe in the knowledge that your own home-grown produce is wholly organic, with no nasty pesticides or chemicals thrown into the mix.
I was googling and I found this longer article on mymoneyblog.com, which tells you a bit more about the practice of the “recession garden”, or the “depression garden.” They talk about how they started out in one medium size pot, and have expanded to include bits and pieces in their patio too.
Depending on what space you have available, you could think about where the best place would be to start. For example, you could perhaps create a small herb pot in a hanging basket in your porch. Not only have you fresh herbs to hand for all your gorgeous culinary creations, but the guests arriving at your house get a wonderful aroma as they are coming to the door.
Alternatively, you can make herb gardens out of window boxes. When you open your windows to get some fresh air into your house, the delicious herby smells would waft through the house too. Then when you are cooking, you can just reach out and grab a lovely handful of herbs for your meals! I reckon that the best sort of herbs for planting in this fashion would be thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil.
If you have a big garden and you’re not stuck for space, simply plant whatever you want! Instead of just herbs, you could plant various vegetables and even fruits. My mom has a really big garden, and she has started to grow a plethora of plants. I have to say that the yummiest are the fresh potatoes, in the summer. They’re big and floury, you slather them in butter and they are just melt in your mouth. Don’t mention the fresh rhubarb and ginger jam though – it’s delectable!
If you’re not very green-fingered but would like to give this a try, there is a wealth of gardening information at your fingertips – here on the world wide web. Just google for what you need, and you can find help at any hour of the day or night! With a smallish initial outlay, you can save yourself a few bucks over the years to come, with your home-grown produce!
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