If you love to cook be aware what a difference using fresh herbs, instead of dried ones, can make to a dish. Fresh herbs can take an average meal and make it an aromatic taste sensation! Culinary herbs add so much flavor and fragrance to your dishes that once you get used to using them you’ll never want to use dried herbs again. And if you are watching your waistline, using herbs will help you cut calories and still enjoy your food. Fresh herbs can give to a meal what salt and fat can – but without the bad health implications.

One of the benefits of culinary herbs is that they are very easy to grow. You can grow them indoors on your kitchen windowsill or outside in your garden. Culinary herbs look beautiful in a garden, especially lavender and basil, and they can offer wonderful variety to your garden – rosemary bushes are fragrant and can grow very large and are evergreen. For smaller herbs wall planters, hanging baskets, window boxes or pretty pots are big enough.

When out grocery shopping it is easy to pick up a container of freshly cut herbs, but if you grow your own you can snip at them whenever you like and have an instant supply of culinary herbs at hand – so growing herbs at home is easy for you and easy on your pocket. Unsure of which herbs to grow? Some that are great to use when cooking are basil, cilantro, chives, thyme and rosemary. They need little and in return flourish easily.

You don’t need much to start growing your culinary herbs, but these tips are important to remember: herbs need lots of sun, they cannot tolerate over-watering and they thrive in well drained soild. If you don’t like to plant seeds then visit a nursery and buy potted herbs that have already grown and are ready to use.

With some extra planning, using herbs in your cooking will help enhance your food without much additional expense. There are countless recipes available to help you use fresh herbs – from pesto sauce which uses handfuls of basil, to lesser known ones that require just a small sprinkling of herbs. Whichever you choose you will be delighted with the outcome.

For more information on when to plant, growing herbs, both indoors and out, and more visit growherbstoday.com.