HERBS (Basic Course) AHT108

This is a course for the amateur who likes to use herbs at home. If you are serious about growing or using herbs commercially, you are better to do our Herb Culture Course (BHT114).

COURSE STRUCTURE

The course is divided into 6 lessons as follows:

1. Introduction to Herbs. Plant identification, plant names, general characteristics of herbs, the history of herbs, and herb resources (nurseries, seeds, clubs, etc).

2. Herb Gardening. Planting, propagation, soils, plant nutrition, and container growing.

3. Companion Planting. Introduction to companion planting, herb garden design.

4. Growing Herbs to Harvest. Herb products, setting up a herb farm, making compost.

5. Herbs for Cooking. Herb crafts, herb ingredients, cooking with herbs.

6. Herbs for fragrance, health and beauty. Dyes, mordants, oils, other herb crafts.

AIMS

• Define "herb"
• Identify herbs suitable for hanging baskets, indoor growing, and appropriate methods of propagation for at least 50 herb species
• Define "companion planting"
• Give examples of appropriate companion planting
• Build an efficient compost heap
• Identify appropriate herbs for culinary uses
• Identify some medicinal uses for herbs

EXAMPLES OF WHAT WILL YOU MAY DO IN THIS COURSE?

During the course, the student will actually do the following:

• Collect and identify 30 different herb specimens
• Learn the basics of plant identification
• Make contact with herb farms to ask about their operation
• Propagate herbs by cuttings
• Prepare a soil suitable for growing herbs
• Design and plant a herb garden
• Visit retailers to investigate the types of herb products available
• Prepare food containing herbs
• Harvest and dry a herb correctly
• Prepare one other type of herb product

Extract from Course Notes:

COMPANION PLANTING
Many companion planting ideas such as the one above might be criticised by scientists; but even scientists will advocate some companion planting ideas. Leguminous plants (eg. peas and lupins) are known to have the ability to fix nitrogen (ie. take nitrogen gas from the air and convert it into a nutrient form which the plant can use). It is common in horticulture and agriculture to use legumes to 'feed' other plants.
Ideas on companion planting, a lot of which is folk-lore, are commonly criticised as having no solid scientific basis. Few companion planting techniques have been researched sufficiently for us to draw solid conclusions that the practice is a substantially effective cultural technique. Your own experience is your best source of knowledge.

Read all you can about the inter relationships between plants both in texts you have received with this course, and any other sources you can find. However do experiment yourself, as you will probably learn more about companion planting by trying it than you ever will by reading about it.
Although there is no scientific explanation for the effects of companion planting however companion plants are believed to work in several ways:

• May act as a barrier to the crop
• May camouflage the crop
• May confuse insect pests
• May attract insects away from the main crop
• Produce exudes from the roots that appear to deter pest attack
• Produce chemicals that repels pests or masks

Repellent plants
Certain plants will repel insects or other pests from an area. This usually works by the aroma being released from the plant (as such a repellent plant might not work unless it is brushed or broken frequently and the smell is released).

Plants claimed to work in this way are:

• Fennel for fleas
• Peppermint for mice and rats
• Wormwood for snakes
• Pennyroyal for ants
• Tansy for flies

Attractant plant
These are plants which keep pests away from where you want them by attracting pests to the herb (eg. a nasturtium, grown at one end of the garden may attract aphis, keeping them away from plants at the other end of the garden).

• Moths are attracted to some types of lavender
• Hyssop attracts cabbage white butterfly
• Marshmallow plants (ie. Malva sp.) attract harlequin bugs

Plants which affect the soil
Plants can affect the soil in many different ways to create desirable or undesirable affects for other plants. For example:

• Legumes such as peas, beans or lupins have colonies of bacteria on their roots which have the ability to take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form of nitrogen which the plant can absorb.
• French marigolds exude a chemical from their roots which deters the development of nematodes in the soil.
• Garlic and other onion type plants will increase the level of sulphur in the soil in desirable forms, leading to some control over fungal diseases.
  

Sometimes these effects may only be mild, and at other times they may only have an affect under certain conditions; but often there is at least some truth in the claim.