Beginning Gardening Vegetbale Gardening Guide.

I collect cookbooks and like to experiment with interesting meals from other culture like a Mexican mole. How about you? Like me, you raise many of the ingredients if you begin your own themed kitchen herb garden.

You can cultivate the major herb plants in your own garden and have the freshest ingredients to add to your recipes, or experiment on your own.

You do not have to have a special place for your themed kitchen herb garden. You can raise them in containers or in your usual garden bed.

Look no further than these recommendations for your own themed kitchen herb garden:

• Asian: From Thai and Vietnamese to Indian and Chinese, Asian cuisine has a lot of tastes and spices to choose from. Some wonderful herbs to grow in your Asian-themed garden are lemongrass, cayenne pepper, cardamom and anise. Try the licorice taste of anise in your next Indian meal, or try its warm sweetness in your baked goods. You can also use it in tea and in baking a savory-sweet cookie. Although it used to be pretty popular in American cooking, it kind of died out, but in the last few years has been growing in popularity in the kitchen.

• Mexican: Not a week goes by when I do not chow down on a Mexican meal. I love to eat my favorite Mexican meals, such as burritos, fajitas or quesadillas at least once a week. The best Mexican recipes usually include these: Cayenne pepper, Cilantro and Garlic.

• Italian: Just about everybody I know has their favorite Italian dish. Mine is baked ziti with grilled herbed chicken. Among the best herb plants to try in your Italian meals are basil, fennel, parsley, garlic, marjoram, oregano, rosemary and thyme. You can add garlic to all your favorite Italian dinners and savor the oniony flavor! You can add garlic to your mashed potatoes and even roast it with some olive oil to eat it by itself. Be warned, the longer you cook it, the milder the flavor becomes so don’t overcook it!

• Middle East: If you have not tried any of the exciting and flavorful foods from the Middle East and Northern Africa, you are missing some fabulous dishes. The flavors are so varied and the recipe items are so out of the norm for most of what I usually have in my recipes, such as chick peas, figs and couscous. Try these herbs to spice up your Middle Eastern dinners: cardamom, garlic, parsley, rosemary and saffron.

• German: You can have your own Oktoberfest any time you like if you have got all the right German herbs. These are a few of the best and most often used in authentic German dishes: chives, dill, horseradish, sage and thyme. As a relative of mustard, horseradish is a condiment herb that you can use for extra taste. It can also clear up your sinuses! Use horseradish to add an extra twang to beef, fish, cream cheese spreads, potato salad, mayonnaise and meat loaf.

One of the wonderful things about herb gardening it that herbs are a gift that keeps on giving. Once you lop off some lemongrass for your pad Thai, it will grow back. Oftentimes it will grow back bigger and fuller than it was before.

Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.

Here is more information on Fresh Herb Gardening. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.

Technorati Tags: fresh herb gardening, gardening, growing theme kitchen herb garden, kitchen, themed gardens, Website Information

Posted under Kitchen Herb Garden