Herb gardening has become widely popular because herbs have flavoring value in cooking, medicinal properties and at times even aromatic or ornamental value. Recently Herb garden kits have flooded the market. Each kit comes with all the necessities for raising an herb garden containing herbs of your choice right in your own home.
Pros of herb garden kits
Like all species of plants herbs also have their special requirements. Only some herbs will grow from seeds; others flourish only when cuttings are sown. Herbs also require special light soil that is well drained, airy and possesses the right PH level as well.
Elaborate and high quality herb garden kits come with seeds with high germination rates, special peat pellets and containers. Some also come equipped with a green house dome that can create a favorable warm environment for quick growth of the seeds. When water is added to the peat pellets kept in the container they will expand to form the soil for sowing the seeds. This soil is specially prepared to allow air-flow and drainage of water for proper growth of the herbs. The herbs grown in kits sprout very fast in just 1-3 weeks.
Thus herb garden kits are readymade herb gardens that are very easy to set up unlike outdoor gardens. They are accompanied by easy to understand instruction manuals and instructional CDs. They require lesser effort on your part than when sowing herb seeds outdoors.
They also have a higher success rate than trying to raise herbs on your own outdoors where the herbs will be subject to harsher weather conditions. When the herbs in kits sprout you can replant them in pots and keep these indoors. You could also transplant herbs to your outdoor garden.
Families living in apartments can place these compact space saving kits on their windowsills even after the seeds germinate and pick fresh herbs whenever needed for any purpose.
There are dedicated kits for kitchen herbs, medicinal herbs, aromatic herbs and Italian herbs. The kits are accompanied by recipe booklets.
These kits make great gifts to near and dear ones; they are functional and affordable too.
Cons of herb garden kits
Herb garden kits can produce herbs in only small quantities. They can just about meet the demand for fresh herbs needed in daily cooking or for an occasional medicinal usage. They will in all probability not produce enough quanta of herbs to dry and store for usage in the future.
Large families may find that these kits do not produce enough herbs to fulfill all their needs. You can start only at the most 25 plants at a time.
Some kits are not of high quality. The seeds of such kits may not sprout and some herbs have been found to die soon after they have sprouted. The containers of such kits may also look unfinished, not justifying the price.
Hence it is very important to buy these kits from reputed grocery stores or super markets.
