Backyard Garden: Herb Garden
This garden demonstrates the growing, drying and uses of herbs for household use. Packaged supplies of harvested herbs are distributed to area food pantries.
Points of Interest:
We have created (4) different beds in our garden (edible flowers, Kansas kitchen, Mexican, and Asian).
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- Edible Flowers: Edibles grown in this garden bed are used for cooking, pastry decorating and snacks. These herbs provide taste, beauty and some provide healing and soothing effects. This bed includes borage, lavender, snapdragon, chives, marigold and nasturtium.
- Kansas Kitchen: The herbs grown in this bed are commonly used in many Kansas kitchens in everyday cooking. It includes rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, parsley and a variety of basil.
- Mexican Garden: Mexican cooking continues to grow in popularity. This bed provides many of the herbs that are used in these recipes. The herbs grown here are packaged for the growing number of families using our area food pantries. Plants include: cilantro, marjoram, thyme, along with a variety of peppers and white onion.
- Asian Garden: This bed includes herbs that are often used in Asian cooking. They include Thai basil, lemon grass, Chinese chives, shiso and cilantro. Food pantries report a growing number of requests for Asian herbs.Most herbs grown in this garden are low maintenance, requiring minimum water & weeding although virtually all herbs grown have high light requirements.
Tips:
- Herbs are more easily grown from transplants. Many are perennials and will last for many years such as varieties of rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and mint.
- Understand whether the herbs you select are invasive and will benefit from growing in a pot to control spreading. Examples include mint, thyme, oregano, and St. John’s wort.
- When drying herbs, gather early in the morning. You can dry by several methods including gathering in a bunch & hanging upside down, drying leaves (w/o stems) in a microwave or oven, or by using a dehydrator.
- Have fun cooking with your herbs. The internet is full of herb mixture “recipes” for cooking such as Herbs de Provence, Pesto, and Tuscan Seasoning, etc. Of course many herbs add great flavor all by themselves, such as dill, coriander, basil - and more!
Garden Address
35230 W 135th St
Olathe, KS 66061
Master Gardeners are available to answer questions and provide tours while they work the gardens Wednesday mornings, March to October. To schedule a visit on another day (M-F), please contact us at bygjocoemg@gmail.com
Have questions? The Garden Hotline is staffed by trained EMG volunteers and Extension staff who will assist you with questions. Phone: (913) 715-7050 Email: garden.help@jocogov.org