Want to cook delicious meals with freshly picked ingredients from your kitchen garden? Even if you don’t have a lot of space, you can grow common herbs like lemongrass, rosemary, and mint in your kitchen.
How?
Using a small hydroponic system near the kitchen platform or a window. This allows you to grow fresh herbs that meet the needs of a single family without any complications or soil.
1. Lemon Grass
Gather some lemon grass strands from a garden or from the market. Make sure that its roots are also included. Place it in a glass or container with water. Allow it some sunlight and set it aside. Within 15 days, you will notice new roots and leaves sprouting from the plant.
Use your fresh lemongrass in a cup of steaming tea or for an additional flavour punch in a variety of curries.
2. Rosemary
This aromatic herb is essential in most Italian dishes such as pizzas, pastas, and lasagnas, as well as flavoured rice.
Gather a six-inch rosemary cutting from any garden or market. Remove the lower leaves and immerse the cutting in water. Roots will emerge from the cuttings in 10 days. After 20 to 25 days, you will notice new branches and leaves. Keep in mind to change the water once a week.
Besides being a delicious accompaniment to meals, rosemary can also help keep mosquitoes away.
3. Mint
Pick up three or four mint cuttings at the market. Take two small and one large containers. Make a few holes in the small container’s top. Remove the leaves from the bottom of the cuttings and insert them into the holes.
Fill the other container halfway with water and place the small box containing the cuttings inside.
Place the container in a location that receives plenty of sunlight. Once a week, change the water. Within a few days, the leaves will sprout, and new white roots will appear inside the small box.
4. Oregano
When grown in pots, oregano can be planted at any time. To improve drainage, mix regular potting soil with coarse sand or another material. A 6-inch clay pot works well as a container. Give the pot a bright indoor location and you’ll be able to harvest in about 3 months. You can also start a new potted oregano plant by rooting leaves from an existing plant. Pinching off leaves on a regular basis will encourage the
plant to grow bushier and increase your harvest; even a single pot will provide more oregano than one household can reasonably use.
5. Mexican mint
Mexican mint, which is considered a variety of celery due to its fragrance, has a number of medicinal properties. It can be added to tea or drinks to enhance the flavour and aroma.
This mint can be grown in abundance on both soil and water. Because the plant grows quickly, it is best to keep it in a large-mouthed container. Place three or four cuttings of the plant in a water-filled container.
New roots will sprout in a week, and leaves will appear in 10 days. For faster results, change the water every other day.
This herb is ideal for flavouring meat dishes, soups, and stews.
Tips to keep in mind while growing all these herbs
• Change the water inside the containers frequently (preferably alternate days) till new roots and stems develop. Once the growth begins, change water once a week.
• To aid faster growth, add any hydroponic fertilisers to the water. You can also use seaweed fertiliser, which dissolves in water easily.
• Prune the roots once a month.
• In case of insect attacks, dilute neem oil and spray it once a week.
