Know Your Herbs | Young Gardeners

Herbs are great to grow yourself. Not only are they simple to grow, they can also be added to all kinds of recipes to to make your food totally delicious! Take a look at all of our favourite herbs then... have a go at finding each of them in our Herb-a -licious word search and puzzle page, available at the bottom of this page!

Our favourite blogger Kirsty loves to grow herbs with her kids at their allotment. We caught up with them to find out all about their brand new herb bed!

Kirsty's Herb Bed

To get my kids more involved with growing their own food I thought a good way to start would be by creating a herb bed. Children really respond well to learning outside and getting hands on, so using a herb garden is a great way for children to do this and at the same time for them to use all of their senses in the garden. I took my girls to explore the small herb raised bed at the allotment that I recently planted. We were able to touch and feel the different textures of the herbs, smell the wonderful unique smells from the tangerine sage and chocolate mint. We got to taste the different flavours and look and listen out for the bees and wildlife around the allotment. The girls really enjoyed exploring the herbs and tried all of the funky flavours, especially when I said chocolate mint was on offer.

Another reason that's very important to get the kids in the garden and learning about plants is to help the ever declining bee population. There are lots of herb plants that are incredibly bee friendly and it's a great way of attracting bees to the garden. Lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme, hyssop and many more are fantastic herbs to have in the garden for the bees and also fantastic to use when cooking. It is very important that we teach our children about the importance that the bees have in our world and what we can do to help them. If you are thinking of getting your children involved at the allotment or in the garden, herbs are definitely a great way to start.

Our Favourite Herbs!

Basil has smooth, tender green leaves. You can eat the sweet and strong smelling leaves, they are delicious. Basil is commonly eaten in Mediterranean foods such as pasta and pizza!

Chives is a long smooth straight blade like herb. It also flowers with a globe of delicate pink flowers. Chives have a peppery taste and are great chopped up into egg mayonnaise sandwiches.

Like most herbs, Thyme has a delicious smell. It has small pink flowers and green leaves. Thyme is great with meat or fish.

Sage is an evergreen plant. It has long green-grey leaves that are velvety in texture. Sage is commonly used with onion to make stuffing to have with turkey or chicken.

Rosemary has thin tough leaves on upright stems. It has many uses in cooking but is often used with meat. Just link all herbs, rosemary is packed with nutrients, including iron, calcium and vitamin B6.

Parsley is a fresh smelling herb. It has flat green leaves that zigzag round the edges. It is often seen in sauces eaten with fish.

Mint has a smell that you will recognise. It is fresh and slightly menthol. Mint can be used in a number of sweet and savoury dishes from lamb dinners to ice cream!

Fennel leaves are light, green and feathery. Fennel has an unusual aniseed taste that goes well with fish.

Coriander has flat green leaves and long thin stems. Coriander is perfect with curries. It can be used as an ingredient in the dish as well as a fresh garnish on top.

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