Save Money by Growing Your Own Herbs

As a nation we have become keen cooks. There are endless amounts of cookery programs, websites and books that give us the inspiration and ability to cook meals from all over the world. Plus with the added ease of our supermarkets supplying just about every ingredient we could possibly need, it isn’t hard to understand why we just love to cook.

Now we all have our favourite cuisines. Personally I love Indian, French and Spanish but to be honest I enjoy a wide variety of foods. The few that I mentioned are just my firm favourites. As a mum though, I have to cook meals that are suitable for the whole family. So as much as I would like to, I can’t just cook curry every night of the week because my boys aren’t huge spice fans. Don’t get me wrong, I do cook curry and I do try to make a variety of curries to hopefully find one that the boys will love but so far they just don’t seem to be onside. I’ll keep trying though!

My eldest son Isaac is only 5 and already he is a massive fan of all things French. Some of his favourite foods are fish, olives and stilton. Mmmmmm. Whilst Malachi seems to enjoy a good old plate of lasagna or spaghetti bolognese best. Oh man, all of this food talk is making me hungry!

But with all of this yummy food going on, where can we save money? One of the easiest ways is by growing your own herbs. You can grow such a wide variety of herbs that you can be stocked up and ready to cook no matter which cuisine is on the menu that night.

You are probably aware of the fact that supermarkets sell pre-grown potted herbs for as little as 59p, but even though this is a great price and convenience, in my experience they aren’t the best herbs going. They are grown in very intense, hot-house conditions and usually covered in pesticides and fertilisers. Because of the speed in which they are grown the root balls don’t develop properly which is why you will have probably noticed that their life span once you have got them home is very short.

So you may choose to grow your own instead. All you need is some little pots around 5cm deep or a pretty windowsill trough*, seeds, cling film and a sunny spot all ready for them. March is a good time to sew the seeds, you then give them a light covering of compost on top and then cover the pots in cling film to create a greenhouse effect. Once they have started to produce the first leaves you can then thin them out by removing the weaker plants to leave more room for the stronger ones to grow.

This super easy and very rewarding little job will give you enough fresh herbs which will look and smell beautiful with enough left over to chop and freeze too. By doing this you can be sure that whichever meal you’re planning to cook, you won’t need to go out and buy a load of different herbs for them to just die the next day. You will have a constant and fresh supply of organic home grown herbs whilst saving those precious pennies at the same time.

Do you save money by growing your own herbs? Which herbs do you think are a must for growing yourself?