Think how convenient it would be to grab some fresh growing herbs from your herb garden when you're cooking

Growing herbs will make it easy to get fresh herbs whenever you want them. An herb garden can be grown almost anywhere, whether in containers, in your vegetable garden or even inside. Herb plants are relatively small, so your herb garden can be quite easily made to fit your space. Fresh growing herbs are much more flavorful than the dried herbs you'll find in the grocery store.

There are many types of herbs – some of them are annual and some are perennial. Growing herbs of annual varieties usually means you will start them right from herb seeds, and they will only last for one year. With perennial varieties, once you've planted them in your herb garden, with proper care they will grow year after year.

Growing herbs is very similar to growing most other vegetables. Most varieties will grow best with 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. Your herb garden will tend to need less fertilizer than other vegetables, however. Too much fertilizer will make your herb plants get spindly and less flavorful.

Fresh growing herbs can be dried so you can use them even after your herb garden is done for the season.

If you're growing herbs in your own herb garden, you'll have fresh herbs during the growing season, but what about the rest of the year? By drying them, you can have them to use all year long.

To air dry your herbs, cut 5 or 6 stems from your growing herbs. Tie the ends of the stems together and hang them upside down in a room that is dark and warm, with good ventilation. If you have a few varieties of plants in your herb garden, it's a good idea to label them when you hang them since the dried stems will look somewhat different. It usually takes 1-2 weeks for the leaves to dry. The stems tend to hold moisture much longer, so they don't store very well. The moisture in them can cause them to get moldy.

If you're planning on growing herbs again the following year, you can keep the seeds from the dried plants to use in your herb garden. When you hang the stems to dry, put a paper bag around them with plenty of holes for ventilation. As they dry, the herb seeds will fall into the bag.

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