Gardening is enjoying a tremendous increase in popularity. Today a great number of people are renewing the practice of home gardening and many are pondering easy herb garden projects. The National Gardening Association reports that 25,000 schools nationwide have some sort of ongoing gardening projects involving students. The objective of these programs is to connect children with the practice of growing healthy food and learning about nutrition. 84% of the U.S. population live in metropolitan areas and have become disconnected with the growing of fresh fruits and vegetables and consequently consume less of the healthy fresh foods.
This resurgence in gardening popularity can be attributed to several factors. The green movement is encouraging the "grow your own" sentiment to help save energy and assist in the reduction of global warming. The current economic situation is encouraging others to have a garden to save money. Still others are gardening for the purpose of having their own healthy and organically grown fruits and vegetables.
Paralleling this boom in traditional gardening is a significant increase in the pursuit of herb gardening. Herbs have always been the "stepchild" of gardening and deemed to be some sort of specialty line of gardening whose sole function was to produce a few of those exotic food flavorings.
The irony of herb gardening is that herb plants are much easier and less troublesome to grow that the traditional vegetable and fruit plants. There is also a wider variety of herb plants to choose from for a herb garden. The most well know type of herbs are those of the culinary family. Most are familiar with such popular food flavorings as basil, sage, thyme, garlic, rosemary and fennel which we all enjoy in all types of cuisine.
There are several other types of herb plants that add excitement to the pursuit of herb gardening. The medicinal type of herbs provide all sorts of curative remedies for sickness and injury. Before modern medicine herbal remedies were all that was available to mankind for curative relief and they still provide their medicinal relief today.
Aromatic herbs are another type that flies under the radar of public attention. Aromatic herbs produce very fragrant aromas and can be used in many applications to include the making of perfumes, linen and room fresheners, and gifts. Another type of herb is the ornamental. Many provide spectacular bloom, leaves and foliage that make beautiful additions to any landscape plans.
knowledge of the different types of herb plants make the thought of raising any of these wonderful plants an exciting endeavor. As stated earlier growing herbs is easier and less troublesome than the traditional vegetable gardens. If a person is new to herb gardening and desires to start a garden there are two ways to begin. One is to read as much as possible on the subject and get instructions from a mentor. The other is the short cut method of purchasing a herb garden kit that supplies all that a new herb gardener needs to get started. There are many different types of kits available that vary in the type of herbs offered to the amount of supplies included with the kit. They all help the new herb gardener hit the deck running and begin enjoying fresh herbs in a short time.
