[MUSIC PLAYING]
Right now we're going to talk about herbs.
I love to cook with herbs.
And the thing about it is the flavor.
And just standing here with the smell is kind of intoxicating.
And the thing about herbs, like I said, these are perennials.
They'll keep growing.
I've had rosemary in my garden for the last 10
years the same plant.
Even a sprig of this in water is a beautiful thing.
But chicken, fish, all of this, that's
why you need this in your garden.
And the thing about this, it doesn't take a lot of space
to grow herbs.
I have a lot of friends in New York.
And they always ask me, what can they grow on their fire escape
or what can they grow on their windowsill.
And I always tell them herbs because they don't take up
that much space.
And they're hardy.
But, yes, you can't kill these if you try hard enough.
But they don't really--
you don't have to do a lot to take care of herbs.
What I like to do is have them in my kitchen,
growing on a windowsill in my kitchen,
so you can cut them right there when you need them.
You don't have to go out to the garden.
They're right there.
And it's convenient.
One of the reasons I like to grow these
is because of what they cost in the store.
The price is ridiculous what grocery stores get for these.
And then they don't even last that long.
They're like the price of gold when you think about it
whereas when you grow it, all you might need
is a couple of leaves of this rather than buying
a six pack of leaves that cost you $6 in the grocery store.
This is why I like to grow this because, to me, this
is more economical than getting it from the store.
When I go to the nursery to buy my herb starters,
I try to look for everything on the plant
is green there is not dry spots or dry leaves.
This is some really, really healthy looking thyme.
And I like to grow herbs from seedlings
because it's easier since most herbs take a long time
to mature from seeds.
You want to hold it.
You don't want to pull the roots of the plant.
You want to squeeze it out and let it fall in your hand.
And so we have a little friend in here.
You want to open up the soil to basically
to let the plant know that now it can
grow because it was in the pot.
And my analogy for that is it's like living in a box.
If you live in a box, all your thoughts, all your life,
you start shrinking because you can't expand.
These things want to grow.
And they want to expand.
So this is the same thing as you think
about your life and your brain.
Here.
As you can see, the roots are free.
You don't want to go under where it was already
planted in the ground.
You don't want to plant above that.
Like you wouldn't do this.
And press it down.
You don't have to do too hard.
There you have it.
Rosemary is probably one of the hardier
varieties of herbs with sage because the stems
are like bushes.
So see what I'm doing here?
You want to open the soil.
And you can-- see, I'm just doing this with my hand
because of how great the soil is.
In a box in your window, you might
have something that's a 6 by, what, 18 or something.
And you can plant them pretty fairly close, especially
things like thyme.
You might want to give this a little more room
so you can get a bigger plant.
Chives-- they come in--
they come in a bunch so you want--
I would get like three or four bunch of these for my boxes.
And basically, it's a small onion.
There you go.
And you can see the roots here where
they were starting to think about getting root bound.
And sometimes some people will separate these.
You don't want to pull.
You want to shake.
So you can see that all of these are together.
OK.
And so you don't have to plant all the chives together.
You can plant them in different sections of your box.
Other benefits are the health properties.
I mean a lot of these herbs are medicinal.
Another reason to plant herbs like basils
is they have insect repellent properties like the horn worm,
mosquitoes, flies, and aphids.
And there's other plants that repel insects.
And it's a good reason to have them.
Like there is companion planning that you plant
two different plants together.
And one of them is for that, to repel
another insect or pest that might get on the other plant.
For example, growing mint can help you out
if you have an ant problem.
Lemongrass has citronella, which mosquitoes hate.
Lavender will attract bees, which are great, but will
repel other bugs.
And marigolds will help you get rid of mosquitoes,
white flies, and nematodes.
So it's great to plant these with tomatoes.
Once this is done, you're going to get this mix of smells that
is kind of amazing because I'm actually getting it right now.
But this is something--
herbs, you can use them immediately.
I mean this is, a lot of times, what separates your dishes from
someone else's.
And also, when you see these leaves like this,
you want to take them off.
And either get your clippers or just put them down.
Don't pull them straight out.
Don't pull them up.
Pull them down.
You want to remove the dried leaves because sometimes
there's still energy in a plant that's going to that leaf
because it might be trying to heal it.
So if you eliminate it, it's going
to give energy to new growth.
And that's what you want.
You want the new growth.
So we're almost done with this box.
All we have to do is put some water.
And if I would have bought these herbs in the grocery
store, no telling how much you might money
this would've cost me.
But since I planted myself, not only do I have an herb garden,
I have herbs that will last me for years.
Plant an herb garden.