Eating and Drinking Tweets

One of the pleasant pleasures of life are herbs. Besides adding beauty to your garden they make foods taste better and provide a nice smell to the air we breathe. In George Washington days everybody had a herb garden that they used for culinary, teas and medical purposes. That practice is slowly coming back.

A spaghetti garden is one of the most popular kitchen gardens. Anyone which has a sunny patch of ground or a window-box can grow these herbs of parsley, garlic, basil, bay laurel and oregano. A little garden space can easily yield all the herbs that you’ll need for tasty Italian meals. They are even easy to grow in a bright window for your all year use.

Let us take a closer look at the spaghetti garden herbs:

+Oregano is a perennial ground cover plant. Oregano is a prolific grower that will send out shoots that grow to 6 feet in a single season. If pruned and bunched, oregano can grow into a small border plant. It would rather have light, thin soil and plenty of sun, so keep it on the south side of your garden. When the plants reach 4-5 inches cropping can start. Pinch off the top 1/3 of the plant, just above a leaf crossing. The young leaves are really stronger dried than fresh and are the most flavorsome part of the plant. To dry, lay the leaves on newspaper or a drying screen in the sun till the leaves crumble easily. It will keep its flavour for months.

+Bay leaves add a favorable hint of spice to stews, soups and spaghetti sauce. The bay laurel is a tiny tree that grows about a foot a year, this makes it OK for growing in a container. If you live in a mild climate sector leave the container outside, but if temperatures go below 25 degrees keep the tree in a pot and bring it inside during the winter.

+Basil seeds itself so easily that you will never have to buy another plant after the first year. There are a few different types of basil, but all grow quickly and need frequent pinching back to prevent them from growing tall and leggy. When the plants have reached about 6-8 inches tall, you can begin cropping. Pinch off the top 1/3 of the plant, just above a leaf junction. Pinch off any flower buds before they are going to seed. 6 to 8 plants will provide enough basil for the entire neighborhood.

+Garlic is perhaps the simplest plant to grow. Break apart a clove of garlic, and plant the cloves about four inches apart, 2 to four inches deep in a light soil. Gently water and watch them grow. You may crop when tips of the leaves turn brown but do not let them flower. Just dig up the bulbs, and use them. To keep a fresh supply take 1 or 2 cloves from each bulb and replant them.

+Parsley is probably the most used herb in the planet. You will find both flat (Italian) and kinky types. They complement the flavor of everything from sauces to hearty stews. It is used as a garnish on plates, or cut up and added to soups, dressings and salads. Parsley adds vitamins and color, and quietly brings

out the flavor of other ingredients in the dish. Parsley is a biennial, flowering in its second season. It favors a little shade on a hot sunny day, and should be kept watered to duck shriveling and drying. Pinch back older stems to the base, permitting new leaves and branches to grow.

Grow your own tomatoes and you are well on your way to changing into an Italian chef.

If you find this article useful, you should also check out cooking101.org to learn more about some easy techniques of cooking all sorts of quality meals, including tomato pasta.

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