Bartender’s Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide To Growing Herbs For Cocktails
Planning on cultivating a herb garden on your own, without professional supervision, requires a little bit of planning. Whether it’s for growing produce to garnish your cocktails or adding them to your food or drink recipes, checking for seasons, types of herbs to grow and nurture, and finally harvest to add to cocktails requires paying attention to gardening.
But if you want to get started on growing your own herbs at home, here’s a simple and easy-to-follow guide you need. Read on below to know more about how you can plan and cultivate herbs for cocktails in your kitchen garden:
Step 1: Clearing Out Space
One of the first things required to do while planning an herb garden is clearing out the space in your kitchen garden or backyard where plants can be grown. This can be a small corner in the outdoor space available to you. Clear the place of all junk and depending on your preference either develop layers of soil for an in-ground garden or bring in a couple of stands to hoist up the pots that will hold your herbs and shrubs.
Most times, a small herb garden works well when potted plants are kept close together.
Step 2: Picking Herbs
Planting herbs that are easier to grow and require limited intervention on your part is important. This way, greens blossoming at ease can be watched and added to cocktails when ready.
Go for herbs like basil, mint, lemongrass and rosemary which are not only quite straightforward to nurture but are also often used in cocktail craft. Such herbs can be utilised either as garnishes or as flavours imbued in simple syrup or flavoured alcohol.
Step 3: Selecting Containers
Once the herbs have been shortlisted, the next step is to pick the containers that would house the plants. The pots have to be roomy enough to allow the shrubs to thrive and the roots to spread. Ensure that they have drainage holes for excess water to seep through.
If the kitchen garden is propped up on a window sill, get window boxes which will allow lining up the potted plants in a single file. When containers are arranged or layered beds are created in your backyard, depending on the type of herb garden you cultivate, ensure that this spot gets ample sunlight for the plants to grow properly.
Step 4: Soil And Potting Mix
When all your prep is complete, what you need to do is plant the herbs in a soil mix made from potting soil and compost. While planting the herbs, first put a few small pieces of gravel or rocks at the base of the plants and then top this up with the pre-mixed soil and compost blend.
This layer prevents water clogging and keeps the container airy. Plant the seeds in the mix and water them regularly either with sprinklers or using a spray. Most herbs prefer slightly dry soil so, prevent over watering.
Step 5: Harvesting Herbs
Keep pruning herbs at regular intervals to avoid them from flowering. When flowered, their flavour becomes a bit subdued. While harvesting too, cut the herbs just above the leaf node to encourage regrowth.
Harvest the herbs right before blending cocktails to extract maximum flavour out of them. Add herbs to cocktails after thoroughly washing them and use them as garnishes or muddle them at the bottom of the glass so their flavours slowly seep into the cocktail.
