How to Successfully Grow Indian Spices in Your Yard

-

Indian food is popular for its rich flavors and uniquely blended spices in both meat and vegetarian dishes. Even though cooking these savory meals may be a new endeavor for many, just like with many other recipes, you can easily become adept at their preparation with practice. What also influences your success at creating full flavored favorites is the freshness of your ingredients- all of which are easy to grow and cultivate in your own backyard.

grow great food with revive

Growing fresh vegetables, and the complimentary full-bodied spices that make Indian cuisine so popular, is not a complicated process. All you need is a little knowledge of basic gardening and which spices to plant to set yourself on the fast track to your own fresh cooking options.

 

Basic Garden Cultivation Needs

If you already have a garden, then you know that some basic tools are needed for successful care and cultivation of your vegetation. Even if you are new to gardening, you’ll want to consider a few useful items to have handy to care for your growing plants. No great cost or shed full of products are needed for healthy plant growth or harvest, just a few dependable, quality options for regular use.

 

Obviously, the proper sized garden plot or containers are needed for the plants, as well as a sunny area for them to thrive and produce. But you will also need to ensure they are well watered, regularly weeded, and fertilized to support the best harvest possible. Choose a dependable hose that works for your space and is easily accessible for regular watering. You also may want to invest in a small tool set, such as a hand trowel, hand rake, or small spade to help with weeding. Using the proper fertilizer is also useful; this is easy to determine as fertilizers are well labeled for their use.

Most Popular Spices Used in Indian Cuisine

Indian food is famous for its aromatic herb and spice blend, as well as how well these flavors marry both meats and vegetables. Although not all flavors are considered a curry, the term curry is used for many of the most popular dishes well known world-round and describes the artistic blending of very specific spices to create these delicacies.

Ginger, turmeric, chili, bay, coriander, mint, and fenugreek feature prominently in many curries and are a great place to start when planning on Indian spice garden. Others, which I will mention below, may present a challenge, but are well worth the effort once you hone your green thumb.

Which Spices to Plant and How to Care for Them

To get started with your spice garden, first look for those plants that are more readily available in your growing season planting zone. If you are adept at gardening and caring for out of zone plants, then you might want to consider those options that require a little more attention in order to thrive for spice harvest. These aren’t a complete list by any means, but serve as an excellent foundation to get started with influential aromatic flavors in your cooking.

Ginger

Grow your own ginger from a root you get from a grocery store or online order. Choose one with a pointed growing bud on the end and plant it bud-end up in moist soil. To influence rhizomes you’ll need to keep it growing through a few seasons, but you can definitely begin to harvest some leaves to provide a more mild ginger flavor to your cooking.

Chili

Choose your chilis based on heat and personal preferences and grow them in just about anywhere! They even grow well through the winter in a sunny window, but ripe chilis dry and store easily for year round use.

Sweet Bay

Sweet bay is actually a tree but grows well from small cuttings in containers in just about any climate as long as it is protected in cooler weather or brought indoors and placed in a sunny window. Mature leaves can be harvested for use at any time.

Coriander

Coriander seeds are actually known as cilantro in many areas and can be grown as an annual herb and spice in just about any climate!

Mint

Various mints are also incredibly easy to grow in just about any climate and usually grow as a perennial. They can take over the space they are grown in so many people prefer to keep them in a container.

Fenugreek

This legume is often sprouted to use in fresh salads, but the small seeds are excellent for flavoring curry and pickling solutions.

Turmeric

Turmeric can be grown like ginger, with a period of time before rhizome roots are ready to harvest. In the meantime you can use leaves.

Lemongrass

Lemongrass, like any grass, is easy to grow and cultivate. Plant from seed or plant the bulb of the stems you find in a store after using the leafy greens.

 

 

 

 

First Seen here: How to Successfully Grow Indian Spices in Your Yard

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Very Best Trees You Should Use with Clay Soil

-
Although clay soil can be a real pain when it comes to growing anything from annuals and perennials to a wide variety of veggies, many types of trees can actually thrive in this type of soil. However, it’s best to know exactly which ones are ideal, if you’re planning on making sure that all your trees will grow and stay healthy. Before thinking of planting anything, consider the positive aspects of clay soil. This is a type of soil that has high density and can retain moisture very easily. Also, since the particles making up clay soil are negatively charged, this soil is more rich in all the necessary nutrients that plants would need to survive – including magnesium, potassium and calcium. The reason why most plants and veggies don’t grow well in this type of soil is because it’s slow draining and warms more slowly in the spring. Also, it can be more alkaline and it can heave more heavily during the winter months. Magnolia, hawthorn, crab apple trees and hazel trees are some of the
Read more

Tips for Deciding on the Best Time to Plant Trees

-
Image
Fall, especially the period when the ground is still warm, but no longer excessively hot, such as late August and early September, is the best time to plant many different varieties of trees, while spring is the best time for fruit trees. Here are some more details: In fall, there is less chance for drought and excessive heat – trees need cooler temperatures and environments that are moister to be able to grow new roots. Fall is not as droughty and scorching as the period from May to August, being a time when it is easier for plants to accommodate and adjust to a new environment; Plenty of time until the first frost – the longer your new trees have until freezing weather settles in at the end of fall, the better; The period right before dormancy is the best – most trees, with the exception of evergreens, spend a couple of months each year in dormancy. If the trees that you want to plant go dormant in fall, pick the period right before, to give your new trees time to adjust and the
Read more

How Often Should You Water Your Grass Seeds for Best Results?

-
Image
If you want to make sure that you’re watering your grass seeds properly, you’ll have to adjust the amount of water you add to them on a weekly basis. However, even though many experts will recommend limiting the amount of water to about an inch once or twice a week, the problem is that this approach cannot be applied to all situations.   You have to consider the fact that your climate might be less than ideal when it comes to encouraging the seeds to grow properly with that amount of water. In some cases, it’s simply not enough, while in others it might even be a little too much.   If it constantly rains where you live or humidity levels are too high, then you might consider allowing nature to take care of your lawn for you. Of course, even then you might have to add a little extra water from time to time. In contrast, dry areas will require a lot more water, especially if the sun blazes above all day long and leads to most of the water being evaporated.   The type of soil you ha
Read more