If you’re an amateur kitchen enthusiast, or a true gourmet, or just someone who enjoys good, fresh, nightly cooking, then maybe you ought to think about how much fresh herbs can spice up your meals. Growing a small herb garden can be one of life’s true small pleasures, especially if you enjoy your time most with your nose in the recipe book. And the best part of all this? If you live in an apartment, you can grow most herbs in a window box planter or a sunny spot anywhere in your home. If you live in a house, you can grow herbs indoors in your kitchen, out in your yard in pots, or in a dedicated planter box right there in the ground! When you’re growing your own herb garden, you just can’t lose.

Here is some information on the types of basic herbs you’ll want to consider when you decide to grow you own herb garden. Whether you’re using the herbs for cooking, drying and saving or merely scented decoration, this is a great variety of basic, common herbs to make sure you include when you plan things out.

Basil
One of the best herbs to include, and what you might think about making the “anchor plant” since you can use it in a wide variety of cooking dishes, is the basil plant. The plant is an annual, and will get pretty big with a woody stem and bright, broad leaves that have a smell not unlike licorice. Make sure you remove the tiny white flowers to ensure proper growth and the longevity of the plant throughout the growing season. The leaves can be chopped or included whole in dishes, or used as garnish on serving plates. Very common in cultural dishes from Italian to Thai, from tomato sauce flavoring to deep fried leaves placed on top of fish.

Chives
Chives are like onions that grow in a different form: more like blades of grass than a bulb in the ground, but with similar, spicy flavor. The clumpy herb will flower, providing visual interest to your herb garden. Chives are great on top of baked potatoes, or as extra spice instead of onions in a basic green garden salad. For great flavor, consider adding some minced chives to your scrambled eggs.

Dill
Dill, like basil, is also an annual. The leaves feel soft to the touch like feathers that are delicate and wispy like a variety of fern plants. The seeds are oval, and should be the method you use when planting, rather than moving a full plant from one location to another. The plant can be attacked by aphids, so be on the lookout and don’t let the problem spread to other plants in your garden, especially roses. Dill can be used with cucumbers on fish like salmon, or as a great flavor in egg salad, or beets salad.

Mints
The mint herb comes in a ton of interesting and interesting sounding varieties, some as tasty as chocolate mint. Each of these varieties tends to smell and taste vaguely like the name from which the plant derives. So lemon mint tastes just a bit like lemon, but not overwhelmingly so. Basic varieties include spearmint, and peppermint, both of which make excellent sun tea when left in water out in the sun. The herb can be highly invasive, so make sure to plant this one in a pot outside of the rest of the garden if you’re making an herb garden in the ground in your backyard. If you do decide to plant mint in a planter’s box, for instance, it will crowd out whatever else you plant with it, so consider leaving it on its own. Great with lamb if you are barbecuing meat on the grill, or put it in yogurt for a meat garnish or side dish.

Oregano
Oregano is an essential herb, the last in this first group of five, and another one that can easily be grown and used fresh, or dried and bottled to be used just as any purchased herb from the grocery store. Oregano is also referred to as marjoram. This herb is not an annual, instead it’s perennial and can be grown successfully in your garden outside, or again, in a pot in your house with good light and water. Because of its growth habits, you’ll find you get the best plants when you divide the oregano every two years and plant the specimens in their own section or pot. This will avoid the woody quality of the plant that tends to develop over time. In cooking, oregano is another essential herb to be added to your tomato sauce.
(Image Via: Branchhome.com)