What might have gone
around you is the information that Mediterranean diet is considered as one of
the healthiest diets in the world.
According to the
list of the World Health Organization citizens of Mediterranean countries like
Italy, Greece, San Marino, Malta and France have an overall life expectancy
between 81 and 83 years. And believe it or not, lovely little herbs such as rosemary, thyme and basil deserve to get most of the credit
for that result.
Unfortunately, those
lovely Mediterranean herbs that add such an outstanding flavor and richness to your
dishes are often hard to grow in humid conditions. However, hard to grow
doesn’t mean impossible to grow.
Prepare Your Herb Garden
Preparing your herb garden properly
is where it all starts. Before doing anything else you should add a lot of compost
and animal manure to your garden soil. The described step is especially
important in case you live in a subtropical or humid region. Remember that adequate
fertilization helps the soil to open up and to take more air in.
Adjust the Soil pH
By neglecting the adjustment of the
soil pH you have a huge chance of making one of 3 most common fresh gardening mistakes. Mediterranean
herbs such as lavender and oregano prefer slightly alkaline soil.
The problem is that soil in tropical
and subtropical climates is often acidic rather than alkaline. To solve this I
advise you to add more lime and wood ash to the soil than you would normally
do.
Group Your Herbs
The way you position your garden
herbs will either make you happy or it will make you shed some tears. I would
say that smiling is a far better option. To enter the group of smiling herb gardeners
you should group your herbs together according to their preferred climate and
soil type.
For example, parsley and basil demand full sun, regular watering
and well-drained soil. Thyme, lavender, oregano and rosemary enjoy alkaline soil and should be
planted together accordingly. In my opinion, the best choice you have is to
grow them in pots.
Gentle Mediterranean herbs like sage and lavender are best to be grown
in terracotta pots. I usually put them out during the dry season and bring them
in during heavy rains and bad weather.
Another significant question relates
to sprinkling. Since sprinkling foliage is a dangerous adventure for plants
that grow in humid conditions, I’ve implemented the technique of sprinkling
alkaline material over the foliage. I repeat this action about four times per
year when humidity reaches its peak. It works well for the foliage and keeps it
dry.
Collect the Seeds
I’ve spent countless minutes and
hours of my gardening time trying to figure out how to deal with short-lived
plants such as basil and parsley. The funny thing is that the answer was in
front of my nose all the time. Collect the seeds. So I started doing so.
Collecting seeds that you already
have is not so hard, but buying them for the first time can be. Therefore, I
always advise people to buy seeds only from a top quality seed company.
Give me hint on how you’re doing
with growing Mediterranean herbs!
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