Fragrant garden: preparation
Even from a small free space, using it rationally, you can get the most out of it. An ordinary garden bed and a flower bed - oval, triangular or round - are suitable for spicy herbs. A bed with spicy greens looks beautiful, and everything planted on it is useful, but so that the greens do not lose their decorativeness, it needs care. Therefore, you need to arrange the garden so that it is convenient to work.
In addition, there should be free access to the garden bed even in bad weather, therefore, paths paved with slabs or brick are needed, in extreme cases they can be covered with sawdust.
Herb garden
Plants are tall, planted in the center, lower ones along the edge. They begin to prepare the place in the fall: they remove the weeds, dig it up. In the spring, they clean the soil from weeds again, loosen it, then:
- outline paths;
- limit the bed with a curb, for which, with the help of a cord, they beat off the boundaries and set pegs;
- make a brick border or assemble a frame from boards;
- cover the bed with fertile soil, water it;
- pave the passages;
- seedlings are planted.
Attention! Most spicy plants do not tolerate excess moisture. Therefore, if the bed is in a lowland, then a good drainage layer is needed.
Stapelia
This flower is very similar to a starfish. It is one of the most beautiful, but also the most smelly plants on earth. Even poems were written about the beauty of these flowers. But the appearance of the stocks is very deceiving. Do you know what these beautiful flowers smell like? These flowers smell exactly like dead human flesh, which is already unpleasant to read about. But what will happen when you are near this plant? You will vomit immediately. This flower smells so disgusting. But not all creatures find this smell repulsive. For example, flies, maggots and worms like it very much. This plant is native to South Africa and reaches a maximum diameter of 40 centimeters.
Perennial herbs
The detachment of perennial spicy herbs is:
- Fennel. Reaches 1.5 m, most often grown as an annual, because he is southerner and cannot stand harsh winters All its parts are used in the kitchen. The grains are used as a seasoning for fish, they decorate dishes with beautiful leaves, the heads of cabbage are stewed and served with meat.
Fennel
- Lovage. A powerful, unpretentious spice plant, reaching 2 m. It is planted both in the sun and in the shade - it feels good everywhere. Its leaves are a spicy seasoning for fish and meat dishes. The plant is a common ingredient in traditional medicine.
- Hyssop. It is a half-meter, and sometimes even taller, fragrant dwarf shrub. Very picturesque when in bloom. Its flowers are most often purple or blue, but pink ones are also found. A spicy seasoning from its buds and leaves is used for salads, sauces, soups, meat and fish. It is a good flavoring agent for pickles, tinctures.
Hyssop
- Ruta. This is a half-shrub 50-70 cm in height. Unpretentious, reproduces in all known ways. As a seasoning it is good for lamb, meat fillings, vegetables, put in jars when canning tomatoes, cucumbers.
- Lemon balm is a bush 0.45-1.25 m tall, branched, growing well in the sun and in a slightly shaded place, the main thing is that the soil is fertile.Has a citrus flavor, is used in many dishes, giving them a bright taste.
Lemon melissa
- Garden thyme. Low shrub 0.25-0.4 m. In addition to widespread use for medicinal purposes, it is also a good seasoning for soups, salads, sauces, fish, meat, vegetables.
- Sage is a powerful plant with panicle-shaped inflorescences, sometimes reaching 1.2 m. It is useful both in the kitchen and in medicine.
Attention! Individual plants enhance the taste of the herbs that grow with them. These include kanuper, nivyanik, wormwood.
Coriander, or cilantro
Cilantro is an incredibly popular herb in Asia. It combines both spice (seeds) and spice (leaves). The amazing properties of the plant were known to people as early as 5000 BC. e.
It is difficult to imagine adjika, Georgian sauces, Borodino bread, fish, Korean carrots, kebab, kebab, kharcho soup without coriander. Seasoning has become so tightly embedded in our lives that we sometimes do not notice how widespread its use is.
Spicy annuals
A garden bed with herbs is not only perennials; without annual aromatic plants, it will be incomplete. This list includes:
- Anise. It grows on light and fertile soil, loves light. It can grow over a meter. Collect fresh herbs to season salads, side dishes. The seeds are added to sauces, baked goods, pickles, soups, kvass, sourdoughs.
Anise
- Dill. It is worth planting this plant once, how further it will multiply itself through self-seeding. It is difficult to name a dish, wherever dill is used, well, unless it is added to sweets.
- Basil. It grows in the form of a small compact bush, thermophilic, so it is better to grow it through seedlings. Fresh leaves are served with kebabs, used as a seasoning for many dishes. The twigs are used for conservation.
- Parsley is an essential ingredient in many dishes. Both the leaves and the root are used. Grows in a bright place, prefers loose soils, is not afraid of frost.
- Borago or cucumber herb. This plant with beautiful blue star-shaped flowers is a good addition to side dishes, meat, vinaigrette, fish, cold soups, sauces. In addition, mature leaves are stewed, like spinach, added to marinades, pickles. Both fresh and candied flowers are edible. Bushes can grow from 10 to 60 cm in height.
Borago or cucumber herb
- Coriander. In appearance, 80-centimeter bushes cannot be immediately distinguished from parsley, but the taste and aroma of cilantro are completely different. The plant is not capricious, it grows in the garden without much attention to itself. Greens are good in salads, as a seasoning for soups, meat. Seeds are an irreplaceable spice for sausages, canned food, sauces, drinks, pickles.
- Mustard salad. Surprisingly early maturing, cold-resistant plant. In the home kitchen, they use its succulent leaves, which are harvested before the flowers appear. They are put in salads, made a side dish, canned. Oil is obtained from seeds, mustard is made. The powder made from seeds is used as a seasoning for fish and meat. It is included in gingerbread mixtures. This spice makes the stomach work more actively, increases appetite.
Mustard salad
- Floral marjoram. Unlike the leafy marjoram, which grows exclusively in the south, the floral one belongs to annuals and is cultivated in Europe. Spicy leaves and flower buds that have not yet blossomed are used. The latter are dried, fried, added to dishes fresh. This spice can be found in the Ingredient List for Hop-Suneli Blend. The housewives generously season them with fried and stewed poultry, pork, add to cabbage, legumes, potatoes, minced meat, marinade, pates, drinks, mushroom, meat soups.
- Caraway. An ancient spicy plant up to 1 m tall, it is more correct to call it a biennial. Seeds are mainly used as a flavoring agent for bread and other baked goods.Included in the list of spices for meat, gravy, vegetables, sauce, kvass. The root and leaves are put in salads. The essential oil made from seeds has a peculiar aroma.
Caraway
- Kupyr is another representative of the umbrella family that prefers shade. It tastes very similar to parsley, but has a slightly sweet smell, typical of anise. As a spice is added with fresh leaves, in the dried form, both taste and useful properties are lost. There is kupyr in sauces, oils, it is added to cottage cheese when making sandwiches.
Advice. Marjoram will help you to endure the salt-free diet better. It is also useful for diabetics as a salt substitute.
A spicy bed is not only healthy, but also beautiful. Set aside a place for her in your garden and she will provide you with tasty additions to dishes, and if necessary, she will cure many ailments.
Basil
The herb basil seasoning was once called the royal herb. It is widely used both dry and fresh. Basil is put in vegetable dishes, meat dishes, soups, and sauerkraut. Fresh herbs are used to prepare cold dishes, salads and soups. Basil leaves are crushed and added to butter and pastes. Many national cuisines of European countries use basil for cooking eggs, fish, cheese, vegetables. Without it, pizzas, sauces, ketchups, gravies and pasta dressings are unthinkable. This amazing herb enhances the taste of sausages and other meats.
In addition, basil has an antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory and tonic effect.
Spicy herbs: photo
Lizichiton
Many people know this flower as "swamp skunk". I'll tell you frankly, but the name is fully consistent with this plant. The flowers are yellow and white. To me, for example, lysichiton resembles a calla in its appearance.
Lysichitone grows in North America, in places where the humidity is high. If you know how a real swamp smells, then it is already easy for you to imagine how this plant smells. Its maximum height is no more than forty centimeters.
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The advantages and disadvantages of such a solution
The fragrant garden is an original idea of landscape design. It usually takes the form of several flower beds that exude sweet or refreshing scents.
The advantages of aromatic corners are as follows:
- such a recreation area on your site can provide the necessary therapeutic effect: to cheer up or relax, relieve tension;
- your suburban area will acquire a special originality, it will become unlike others;
- smells not only shape the mood, but also have healing effects;
- if you choose flowers as carriers, you can experience not only aromatic, but also visual pleasure.
Since we are listing the advantages, we will not forget to mention the disadvantages. Rather, about what you should pay attention to when creating your own fragrant corner.
There are not so many disadvantages of this idea:
- Everyone has their own ideas about beauty. For example, men may not share feminine love in an intoxicatingly sweet perfume. And the woman will transfer her addictions to the garden, serious problems may arise in the family. To prevent this from happening, the decision to create a fragrant site should be made by everyone together. You don't buy yourself a perfume that deliberately annoys your "other half"? One of the options for a compromise may be the division of the site into male and female zones. Let the woman smell her favorite lilies and roses, and the man enjoy mint, spruce and pine.
- Do not make the fragrant zone too closed.This will increase the concentration of odor to critical levels, which, in turn, can ruin rest and negatively affect health. Let the wind help you spread the scents, making them pleasant.
- You need to be very careful when choosing plants for planting. Not only do some of them provoke an allergic reaction, they can also affect certain functions of your body. For example, jasmine, cloves, and lovage increase general arousal. Consider whether this will negatively affect your health.
As you can see, there are no insurmountable shortcomings in the composition. It is enough to take into account all the above nuances and disadvantages of this idea will simply disappear.
There are practically no obstacles to creating a garden of aromas, except for the individual intolerance of a particular smell, but you can always exclude it
Why do we need such a kindergarten at all?
Smell is one of the most important channels through which we receive information about the world around us. During the day, we breathe in and out the air many times, getting the information we need.
The sense of smell gives a sense of freedom to a person. We have a wonderful opportunity, following a familiar scent, to plunge into memories and dreams.
The magical power of smells lies in their ability to affect certain parts of the brain that shape our mood. Unbeknownst to ourselves, we associate the resulting aromas with those emotions and events that we have associated with them.
Sage
Sage medicinal. Salvia officinalis
Another name for sage is Salvia (Latin name for Salvia). A widely used medicinal plant Salvia officinalis (Salvia offininalis), which can be cultivated on your site. Leaves and flowering tops are used as raw materials. Contraindicated in pregnant women and in acute inflammatory processes in the kidneys. Sage propagates by seeds and vegetatively. Various sage varieties are used for decorative purposes. You can buy sage seeds by following this link. Sow sage seeds in the spring.
Possesses a strong piquant odor. If you like it, you can add a small amount of dried sage to any herbal or tea.
Thyme
Thyme or creeping thyme. Thymus serpyllum
Botanical name Thyme creeping (Latin name Thymus serpyllum). Perennial shrub. The herb harvested during the flowering period is used. Propagated by seeds, which can be sown before winter and early spring. There are several varieties of thyme with different flavors. You can buy thyme seeds by following this link.
Stevia
Stevia honey. Stevia rebaudiana
Stevia honey or honey herb (Latin name Stevia rebaudiana). An irreplaceable plant for making herbal teas. It will sweeten your tea without any sugar, being a natural sweetener. This culture is especially relevant for people with high blood sugar, diabetes and body weight control. A perennial herb, but in the middle lane it can be grown as an annual, since Stevia does not tolerate severe winters. Propagated by seeds, green cuttings. You can buy stevia seeds by following this link.
Variety of spices
Spicy plants are divided into six groups:
- Spicy bitter, with a faint aroma. These include horseradish, pepper, mustard and others.
- Bitter, but with a sharp spicy aroma - hops, allspice, ginger, cloves, laurel, calamus, hyssop and others.
- With a very strong, but not at all pungent, sugary aroma and light spicy taste - nutmeg, cinnamon, sweet clover, lovage, coriander.
- With a light and subtle spicy scent - marjoram, savory, cumin, cardamom.
- With individual properties - onion, garlic, dill, fennel, sage, anise, mint.
- Drinking plants are plants used to make all kinds of drinks.
Various cultivated plants are used to impart a noble aroma and specific taste to the drink.For example, marjoram, peppermint, medicinal rosemary, basil, thyme, fennel, dill, coriander. For the same purpose, wild plants are also used: wormwood, calamus, angelica, bison, elecampane, barberry, licorice, cranberries, currants. At the same time, completely different spicy plants use different parts: seeds, flowers, roots, leaves.