How to Grow Herbs and Cinnamon Spice

People prize herbs for their multitude of uses and have employed them for medicines, seasonings, flavorings, personal beautification and fragrance. Greek and Roman students wore garlands of rosemary to enhance their learning abilities and memories and mint was used in the Middle Ages to ward off the evil eye. Herbs are attractive, hardy and easy to grow. With a little care and planning, you can impart the tang of fresh-grown mint or the sweet spiciness of cinnamon to your home-cooked meals wqhile enjoying the satisfaction of knowing the seasoning came right from your garden.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pen
• Compost
• Seeds from assorted herbs
• Seeding boxes
• Potting soil
• Shovel
• Burlap
• Spray mister
• Mulch

Instructions

1. Make a list of the herbs you most want to grow, taking into account their flavor, appearance, uses, and whether they are annual, biennial, or perennial. Anise, basil, and coriander are annuals, meaning they bloom one season and die. Caraway and parsley are biennials; they live for two seasons but only bloom on the second. Chives, fennel, mint, tarragon and thyme are perennials; they survive through winter and bloom every season. Cinnamon is a tree that can be pruned to stay small. Unless you live in a very mild climate, you should grow your cinnamon plant indoors,

2. Decide on the size and location of your herb garden. Soil must have good drainage; nothing discourages herbs more than soil that is too wet. It's not necessary that the soil be very fertile--herbs grown in excessively fertile ground tend to have too much foliage and little flavor. The garden should receive plenty of sun.

3. Prepare the site by cultivating soil to a depth of about 12 inches and adding compost or peat.

4. Make a diagram of your prospective garden, labeling location and identity of herbs, allowing 12-inch by 18-inch sections for each one. Make sure annuals and perennials are planted separately from each other.

5. Sow your seeds in shallow boxes indoors in late winter, with the exception of coriander, dill, fennel, parsley and caraway. Plant these directly into the garden in the April, as they don't transplant well. Whether planting in your garden or in boxes, be careful not to bury the seeds too deeply. A good rule of thumb is to sow them at a depth of twice their diameter. The beds of very small seeds should be covered with wet burlap to keep the soil moist. Water with a mister so soil doesn't wash away.

6. Transplant your indoor seedlings in the garden in April, following your diagram. Post the seed packets on a stick for easy identification.

7. Harvest your herbs by picking fresh leaves when the herb plant has well-developed foliage. Wash in cold water and drain thoroughly. To harvest cinnamon, cut a branch from the tree, let it sit for a day or two, then trim twigs and scrape off outermost layer of bark. Cut the bark from the branch, then make stripes by cutting two parallel lines. These will curl into the familiar curved shapes of cinnamon sticks and can then be dried and used.

8. Protect your biennials and perennials by mulching 4 inches deep as soon as the ground freezes in winter.

Tips & Warnings

• It's easier to sow thyme seeds evenly if you mix them with a little sand.

• Harvest leaves or seeds after morning dew has evaporated but before the sun gets too hot.

• If you want to dry your herbs, harvest the leaves before the flower buds open.

References

• West Virginia University
• TopTropicals--Cinnamon
• How to Grow Herbs