Herbs easy to grow and offer a variety of uses

Herbs are riding a crest of popularity in Las Vegas. People are growing them for fragrance, food flavoring, beauty and many other reasons. They work perfectly for people who are moving back to nature, because herbs can grow in the same spaces as flowers and vegetables.

I want to show off the Springs Preserve herb garden, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., by inviting you to discussions and tours at 1 p.m. every Saturday in May. Right now, herbs are awesome. Learn how easy they are to grow and use in your landscape or near your kitchen door.

You can use herbs in a variety of ways: as backdrops for vegetables and flowers, creating low borders, covering bare ground, filling in between steppingstones, growing in pots and using in hanging baskets. Because of their diverse habits, colors and textures, herbs make glorious garden designs such as an English knot garden.

Herbs can become the dominant part of your landscape. They fill the air with fragrance, long-lasting color and spices for many meals. And they can be only a reach away.

Most herbs have a Mediterranean background, similar to our climate, dry and hot in the summer and mild in the winter. They have small leaves with silvery-gray foliage such as the artemisia, which is common with desert plants. Leaves also come with high oil content, bringing about their fragrance.

Can you imagine having a barbecue pit with herbs planted around it? While cooking something, you could grab an herb to spice up your meals. For example, a pork roast is good when you add pepper and salt, but you'll send it into the stratosphere by adding rosemary, garlic and marjoram as it cooks. If you want your potato salad to reach a new high, add dill and basil to the mix.

Don't forget maintenance. Herbs are almost maintenance free. As you reach for herbs, you are constantly nipping them, and that keeps them groomed. If they do bloom, shear off the flowers and soon you'll be ready for harvesting again. Since most herbs are evergreen, they are available year-round for your cooking pleasure.

Herbs don't need much fertilizer. To keep them happy, feed them monthly with fish emulsion. Later, wash off the emulsion to avoid staining the edible parts. People are finding organic herbs and vegetables are more flavorful and healthier than those sold in stores. They're also preferred by restaurant chefs.

Mulch is another key to producing happy herbs. Cover beds with something such as alfalfa. Under that mulch is an active bunch of microorganisms digesting mulch to create an ideal working environment for your herbs. By continually using mulch, microbial activity produces a rich black soil, and you end up with more contented herbs.

Herbs are virtually bug free. If bugs infest leaves, remove the leaves. If the problem continues, spray with insecticidal soap, and if that doesn't get them, plant something else.

Most herbs remind me of weeds by the way they grow. Put some herbs in containers and watch them freely spill over the wall. And they love fitting in between other plants or sandwiched between steppingstones or crevices in your sidewalks. Somehow, they seem to tie landscapes together. And in this day of water conservation, they make excellent living mulches.

As herbs gain in popularity, they are more readily available at garden centers. Here are some popular herbs to consider: artemisia, basil, bay laurel, bee balm calendulas, catnip, chervil, cilantro, chives, costmary, curry, fennel, garlic, geranium, germander, lavender, mint, marjoram, olive, oregano, parsley, pineapple, rosemary, santolina, sages, savory, thyme and yarrow.

If you want to grow a few herbs, put some in containers near your kitchen door and you're in the herb business.

WHAT BLOOMED IN APRIL

People always want plants covered with lots of blooms. You can have color in your yard 365 days a year with a little planning. Here are some colorful plants that were blooming during April at the preserve: autumn sage, banks rose, bladder plant, bottle bush, brittle bush, bush morning glory, California poppy, cassia, chocolate flower, cotoneaster, desert marigold, dog weed, fairy duster, gazanias, guara, globe mallow, gopher plant, honeysuckle, ice plant, lavender, little leaf cordia, mesquite, mint, Mexican bird of paradise, ocotillo, palo verde, paper flower penstemons, pineapple sage, prickly pear, pyracantha, red justica, red yucca, rosemary, smoke tree, society garlic, Tecoma stans, tufted evening primrose, verbena, vinca and yarrow.

Linn Mills writes a garden column each Sunday. You can reach him at linn.mills@ springspreserve.org or call him at 822-7754.