Herbs for Beginners

DESCRIPTION

This course aims to familiarise you with the use and culture of what are traditionally the most common herb plants. It should provide you with a sound framework upon which you will be able to develop your knowledge of herbs.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 (Ht371).

There are all sorts of different definitions of 'herbs'. The American Herb Society defined herbs in the 1930’s as: "Any plant that may be used for pleasure, fragrance, or physic".

Strictly speaking, 'herb' is simply a shortening of the word 'herbaceous', which in horticulture (or botany) means the type of plant which does not have a 'woody stem'. Herbaceous plants have softer tissue in the stem and tend to die back to ground level each year after flowering, to re-grow a complete new 'top' the next season. Many of the plants we refer to as herbs are like this, but not all.

The word 'herb' in the context of this course, and in the context it is commonly used today, refers to those plants which are useful because of their aromatic, medicinal, cosmetic, flavouring or repellent qualities. Herbs are plants which are used for 'food, medicine, scent, flavour etc.'

LESSON STRUCTURE

There are 6 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Herbs
2. Plant identification, plant names, general characteristics of herbs, the history of herbs, and herb resources (nurseries, seeds, clubs, etc).
3. Herb Gardening
4. Planting, propagation, soils, plant nutrition, and container growing.
5. Companion Planting
6. Introduction to companion planting, herb garden design.
7. Growing Herbs to Harvest
8. Herb products, setting up a herb farm, making compost.
9. Herbs for Cooking
10. Herb crafts, herb ingredients, cooking with herbs.
11. Herbs for fragrance, health and beauty
12. Dyes, mordants, oils, other herb crafts.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

AIMS

Define herb

Identify herbs suitable for hanging baskets, indoor growing, and appropriate methods of propagation for at least 50 herb species

Define and describe 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

Explain the culture of a range of different herbs

Explain a variety of different uses for a range of most commonly cultivated herbs.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

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 or investigate 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

DELIVERY

Correspondence