Clark Pampanga Philippines: How to Grow an Herb Garden
Herbs are probably the most popular and intriguing group of plants in existence. Undoubtedly, the explanation for this is that over the centuries herbs have been used in so many dif¬ferent ways. They flavor our foods, perfume our homes and bodies, decorate our gardens, and cure our ills. One way or another, herbs touch each of our lives.
In this article, we’ll show you how to grow an herb garden.
• Preparing Soil for Herb Garden Planting
Count your blessings if you’re lucky enough to have a garden with rich fertile soil, which is deep and easy to work. Good garden soil is not easy to find, and most beginning gardeners soon realize they must improve on one or more conditions of the soil. Herbs can survive in a wide variety of soil types, but by making some simple preparatory changes, your garden soil can become as easy to use and productive as you’d like. Good soil must be guarded by proper management. In this section, we’ll teach you the basics.
• Herb Garden Soil Preparation Techniques
Now that you know what you need, you’re ready to enroll in the soil-improvement program. In this section, you’ll learn how to test your soil for texture and fertility. Then, you’ll see how to improve soil deficiencies. There’s no need to worry if you’re not satisfied with the results of your testing. Improving your garden soil is easily accomplished and is a regular part of gardening. Remember, all of the soil-improving process doesn’t have to happen in the first year of gardening. Take time working with your soil, and you’ll reap the benefits of many years of fruitful production. We’ll show you how to improve your soil, fertilize, and recycle soil to give your herbs the best chance at growth.
• Growing Herbs
Sooner or later, most of us decide to try our hand at growing a few favorite herbs. If we haven’t prepared our soil, it usually starts with a pot of parsley on the kitchen windowsill or a short row of dill in the vegetable patch. Once started, most gardeners find themselves increasing the number of herbs they cultivate simply because so many of them flourish with little care. In this section, we’ll discuss the best methods to start an herb garden.
• Herb Growing Tips
Like any other garden, you have many different options for layout and design when planting your herb garden. Do you prefer a container garden close to the kitchen for the aromatic herbs that you love to use in your gourmet recipes? Do you like rows and rows of lacy anise to sway in the breeze on a windy day? Does a wistful sigh escape your lips every time you pass an intricate knot garden? Would you rather plant a mixed garden full of herbs, vegetables, and even edible flowers? In this section, we’ll explore the different herb garden options and help you lay out a garden plan to get you ready for planting.
Whether you like to cook or like to eat, nothing tastes as good as something you’ve made yourself. Your herb garden will be a source of fragrant, delicious seasonings for your favorite meals. Let’s get started by preparing the soil for herb garden planting.
Preparing Soil for Herb Garden Planting
Good soil is the key to an easy-to-maintain garden. While most herbs are pretty hardy and require little care, you’ll still find that a little preparation goes a long way.
Improving Your Garden Soil
Good soil is 50 percent solids and 50 percent porous space, which provides room for water, air, and plant roots. The solids are inorganic matter (fine rock particles) and organic matter (decaying plant matter). The inorganic portion of the soil can be divided into three categories based on the size of the particles it contains. Clay has the smallest soil particles; silt has medium-size particles; and sand has the coarsest particles. The amount of clay, silt, and sand in a soil determine its texture. Loam, the ideal garden soil, is a mixture of 20 percent clay, 40 percent silt, and 40 percent sand.
Herb Garden Image Gallery
Some people choose to add vegetables into the herb garden. In the interest of harvesting a bigger and better crop of herbs and vegetables, you’ll want to improve the texture and structure of your soil. This improvement, whether to make the soil drain better or hold more water, can be accomplished quite easily by the addition of organic matter.
Organic matter is material that was once living but is now dead and decaying. You can use such materials as ground corncobs, sawdust, bark chips, straw, hay, grass clippings, and cover crops to serve as organic matter. Your own compost pile can supply you with excellent organic matter to enrich the soil.
Each spring, as you prepare the garden for planting, incorporate organic matter into the soil by tilling or turning it under with a spade. If noncomposted materials are used, the microorganisms that break down the materials will use nitrogen from the soil. To compensate for this nitrogen loss, increase the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that you incorporate into the soil.
The next step in your soil-improvement program is to have the soil tested for nutrient levels. The local county Cooperative Extension office can advise you on testing the soil in your area. Your soil sample will be sent to a laboratory to determine any deficiencies of the necessary nutrients needed for successful plant growth. Instructions for taking and preparing soil samples can be found in our article How to Prepare Soil for Planting.
Be sure to tell the laboratory that the samples came from an herb and/or vegetable garden plot. The test report will recommend the amount and kind of fertilizer needed for a home garden. Follow the laboratory’s recommendations as closely as possible during the first growing season. We’ll talk more about fertilizing below and in the next section, Herb Garden Soil Preparation Techniques.
The necessary nutrient levels are relative to the soil type and the crop being grown. Although different herbs have varying requirements, the soil test institution calculates an optimum average for fertilizer and lime recommendations.
The results of the soil test will indicate the pH (acid-alkaline balance) of the soil as well as the nitrogen content, phosphorus content, and potassium content. The pH is measured on a scale of 1 (most acid or sour) to 14 (most alkaline or sweet), with 7 representing neutral. Most vegetable plants produce best in a soil that has a pH between 5.5 and 7.5.
The pH number is important because it affects the availability of most of the essential nutrients in the soil. The soil lab will consider the type of soil you have, the pH level, and the crops you intend to produce and make a recommendation for pH adjustment.
Phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) levels will be indicated by a “Low,” “Medium,” or “High” level. High is the desired level for herb and vegetable gardens for both nutrients. If your test results show other than High, a recommendation of type and amount of fertilizer will be made.
Although nitrogen (N) is also needed in large amounts by plants, the soil nitrates level is not usually routinely tested because rainfall leaches nitrates from the soil, which easily results in low levels. Additional nitrogen through the use of a complete fertilizer is almost always recommended.
Tests for other elements are available on request but are needed only under special circumstances.
Adjusting Soil pH
The soil test results may advise you to raise the pH by adding a recommended amount of lime to the soil. Ground dolomitic limestone is best and can be applied at any time of the year without harm to the plants. You may be advised to lower the pH by adding a recommended amount of a sulfur product. Ammonium sulfate is the sulfur product most commonly used. Spread the lime or sulfur evenly through your garden and incorporate it into the soil by turning or tilling.
Fertilizing: How & Why To Do It
Many inexperienced gardeners think that since their herbs have done fine so far without fertilizer, they’ll continue to do fine without fertilizer next year. But it’s not quite that simple. Although your plants will probably provide you with herbs without using fertilizer, you won’t be getting their best effort. Properly fertilized plants will be healthier and better able to resist disease and attacks from pests, providing more and higher-quality herbs.
There are two types of fertilizers: organic and inorganic. Both contain the same nutrients, but their composition and action differ in several ways. It makes no difference to the plant whether nutrients come from an organic or an inorganic source as long as the nutrients are available. However, the differences between the two types are worth your consideration.
Organic fertilizers come from plants and animals. The nutrients in organic fertilizers must be broken down over a period of time by microorganisms in the soil before they become available to the plants. Therefore, organic fertilizers don’t offer instant solutions to nutrient deficiencies in the soil. Dried blood, kelp, and bone meal are types of organic fertilizers.
Manures are also organic. They are bulkier and contain lower percentages of nutrients than other natural fertilizers. However, they offer the advantage of immediately improving the texture of the soil by raising the level of organic matter.
Because organic fertilizers are generally not well-balanced in nutrient content, you’ll probably need to use a mixture of them to ensure a balanced nutrient content. The table below, as well as the directions on the package, may be used as a guide to making your own mixture. Incorporate the mixture into the soil while preparing your spring garden. Apply it again as a side-dressing midway through the growing season.
When you fertilize with an inorganic fertilizer, nutrients are immediately available for the plant’s use. Any container of fertilizer has three numbers printed on it, such as 5-10-20, to indicate the percentage of major nutrients it contains. Nitrogen is represented by the first number (5 percent in this example); phosphorus is represented by the second number (10 percent); and potassium by the third (20 percent). The remaining 65 percent is a mixture of other nutrients and inert filler. A well-balanced complete fertilizer consists of all three major nutrients in somewhat even proportions. A complete fertilizer is recommended for herb and vegetable garden use as long as the nitrogen content isn’t more than 20 percent. A typical complete fertilizer used in edible gardens is 10-10-10.
Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-grow-an-herb-garden1.htm
The location is convenient for visitors to go out of town from Manila in a short getaway with family and friends traveling north to Angeles City Clark Pampanga. Traffic along the North Expressway NLEX is always light and the new Subic Tarlac Clark Expressway ScTex takes visitors straight into Clark Freeport without going through any towns and cities along the way.
Residents of Manila travel north to Clark Pampanga to swim at Clearwater Beach Resort, unwind and relax for family bonding at hotel lake picnic grounds. Fine dining Yats Restaurant offers sumptuous cozy Christmas dinner, for wine lovers, Clark Wine Center provides exciting shopping options. After a hectic day of shopping in Clark Pampanga, visitors seldom pass up the opportunity to wine and dine at this top rated restaurant, generally regarded as the best place to eat and drink outside of Manila.
Residents of Manila, tourists from Hong Kong, Macau, China, Korea and Taiwan arriving in the Philippines looking for famous restaurants serving good food and fine wines travel out of town towards the north to wine and dine in fine dining restaurants in Pampanga, Angeles City, Clark. Highly recommended rest bar and fine dining restaurant near Manila is Yats Restaurant & Wine Bar in Clark, Philippines.
For comments, inquiries and reservations click on Click here for inquiry and reservations
Restaurant@Yats-International.com
(045) 599-5600
0922-870-5178
0917-520-4401
Ask for Pedro and Rechel
Getting to this fine dining restaurant of Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Pampanga Philippines
How to get to this fine-dining restaurant in Clark Philippines? Once you get to Clark Freeport, go straight until you hit Mimosa. After you enter Mimosa, stay on the left on Mimosa Drive, go past the Holiday Inn and Yats Restaurant (green top, independent 1-storey structure) is on your left. Just past the Yats Restaurant is the London Pub.
Yats Restaurant & Wine Bar
Mimosa Drive past Holiday Inn, Mimosa Leisure Estate,
Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga, Philippines 2023
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 Rea or Chay
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