We are planning on doing a regular series on small ways you can incorporate healthful changes into your daily life. We’re hoping that this will include everything from small ways to lead a healthier lifestyle to additional ways to incorporate herbs in your life
Put in an herb box
So you’ve decided you want to make some healthy changes in your life. Perhaps this means taking your multi-vitamin, or getting more exercise on a daily and weekly basis. One small change you might want to consider is increasing your consumption of herbs. The ones that come most quickly to mind are herbs used in cooking. They’re readily available and are simple to grow in just about any space.
Consider putting in your own herb box. You can make an herb box to fit your space, whether it is a container garden, or a beautiful raised bed. Do it yourself herb boxes are a simple weekend project and you can find plans at dozens of sites online. You need a minimum amount of materials and a couple hours of time. More importantly, this is a simple way to gain a greater accessibility to fresh herbs. You don’t need to limit yourself to cooking herb, although if you don’t have the basics at your fingertips, what’s stopping you? You can easily grow basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley and cilantro in pots on your patio, deck, or balcony. In addition to your cooking herbs, consider putting in a space for herbs such as mint and/or spearmint, lavender, chamomile, sage, calendula, lemon verbena, and borage.
If you’ve ever had a fresh cup of mint tea you know how easy it is to make and how tasty it is. Herbs are not difficult to grow; in fact many of them grow voraciously. There are a number of things to consider when picking what you want to grow: do you cook? Would you use the herbs in teas? Are you planning on harvesting and drying what you grow? How will you be using the herbs? Most need good drainage, full to partial sun, and regular watering and with that they can practically grow themselves.
How to use herbs in your daily life:
- Teas: In addition to what you grow in your garden, you can add fruit, citrus, ginger, or any other number of items to flavor your tea, all that you’re limited to, is your imagination.
- Herb infused oils: Both to use in cooking and eating or for topical use such as massage oil.
- Cooking: This is a great starting point to experiment with herbs that you might not be as familiar with.
- Baths: This is a great way to pamper and soothe yourself. As kids we would sometimes get mugwort baths, but you could just as easily use any number of fragrant herbs such as lavender, lemon verbena, mint, chamomile, rose petals, calendula, or bay leaves. Just be sure to put the herbs in a sock or cheese cloth so they don’t clog your drain.
How do you like to incorporate fresh herbs into your daily life?
