Discover How to Grow and Utilize Herbs
- Establish a Herb Company
- Herbs can be grown, harvested, and turned into products.
This course might serve as the basis for a business or career if you have a passion for herbs and want to take it seriously.
If you already work in the manufacture or sale of herbal products, on a herb farm, in a nursery, or another related field, this course can deepen your awareness of herbs and lead you to opportunities you may not have ever imagined.
Enjoy the enchantment of herbs? Then this is the course to help you begin your career in herbs; it will give you the opportunity to think about starting a herb farm or working in this fascinating industry. A wonderful training that will push you to learn more and develop your expertise. Adriana Fraser, Adv.Dip.Hort, ACS Instructor
Course Structure:
There are 30 lessons as follows:
1. Introduction
2. Overview of Herb Varieties
3. Soils & Nutrition
4. Herb Culture
5. Propagation Techniques
6. Pests & Disease Control
7. Harvesting Herbs
8. Processing Herbs
9. Using Herbs: Herb Crafts
10. Using Herbs: Herbs for Cooking
11. Using Herbs: Medicinal Herbs
12. Herb Farming
13. Herb Garden Design
14. Constructing a Herb Garden
15. Managing a Herb Nursery
16. Lavenders
17. Mints
18. Lamiaceae Herbs
19. Garlic
20. The Asteraceae (Compositae) Herbs
21. The Apiaceae Family
22. Other Herbs
23. Topiary & Hedges
24. Producing Herb Products A
25. Producing Herb Products B
26. Producing Herb Products C
27. Marketing in the Herb Industry
28. Budgeting & Business Planning
29. Workforce Design & Management
30. Major Research Project
What’s in Each Lesson?
A typical course includes prepping plant reviews, a defined reading assignment (which we give), a set task (like research or a practical), and a written assignment that must be turned in. This entails taking pictures of various herbs, naming them, and writing descriptions of them. The majority of students complete this by visiting nurseries or gardens, or by gathering herbs for their personal collections and taking pictures of those. You can gather pictures from periodicals or the internet if you have restricted access or mobility.
Our knowledgeable tutors can assist you if you need assistance identifying herbs by looking at your photo and description.
Some students may find it tedious, but the best method to learn about herbs is to see a variety of them, talk about them, and think about their qualities and unique traits. This method of teaching plant identification has been used for decades and is quite effective.
Earning a Living from Herbs
Man has been cultivating herbs for thousands of years, both as a garden plant and for the products they can provide (such as cut flowers, fragrances, medications, and culinary products).
This course serves as a foundation for a wide range of professions, from farmer to product maker to nurseryman.
What Role Can Herbs Play in Landscape Design?
Although you can grow herbs with any other plants in your garden, they look best when given their own area, no matter how big or tiny.
The size of a herb garden is irrelevant. There are magnificent herb gardens spread across several acres and others that are carefully contained within a tiny courtyard. You must work according to a plan if you want to construct a herb garden of any size, even if it is just a border of herbaceous plants or a mixture of herbs and other plants.
Depending on two factors, a herb garden (or farm) can either be tiny or large:
- the need for herbs in the home, whether for cooking or even for crafts and remedies.
- the homeowner’s preference for herbs over other plants or their intention to give their garden personality by incorporating herbs.
Parsley, mint, chives, and garlic are a few examples of the few various varieties of herbs that can be grown in any part of the garden, the vegetable patch, or even just in containers if they are just needed for cooking. But, if the homeowner is more dedicated, they might give the herbs their own garden space.
Herbs and other plants can sometimes be combined to give the impression of an old-fashioned cottage garden. In this case, herbs may end up being the element that unites the garden as a whole.
What are some examples of the various kinds of herb gardens?
Decorative herb gardens
A formal herb garden can employ almost any geometric shape, but it must be properly organised on both sides of a central line. Normally, the gateway, gate, or other point of entry into the garden should be where that central line begins.
A garden feature should typically be placed at the end or sometimes in the middle of the central axis since it creates a line that the eye is drawn along. A fountain, sundial, arbour, or statue are a few examples of this type of element.
Formal herb gardens should have clearly defined lines, like walls or consistently angled edges. In a formal garden, hedges work best as bed edging. Always cut with a modest downward slope from the top to the bottom. One herb that works well with hedges is rosemary. Some formal examples to think about are a wheel-like design with paths running around the rim and spokes and beds filling the gaps in between; or a shape with a path running through the middle, such as a rectangle, square, triangle, or octagon.
Evergreen Borders
Many herbs are perennial plants that grow vigorously in the summer and then wither down to their roots in the winter. Although there are many exceptions, such as the widely used rosemary, bay, lavender, and other tiny and big woody shrubs regarded as “herbs,” these are the actual “herbaceous” plants.
A front strip (edging a lawn or path) of perennials is frequently planted in a garden bed comprised of evergreen trees and plants. They develop rapidly in the spring, bloom in the spring and summer, and alter the aspect of the garden during those hotter months. When the plants die back in the winter, they leave a bare strip, giving the garden bed a more open appearance. This atmosphere is definitely advantageous when the weather is less pleasant.
Apple mint, lemon balm, bergamot, fennel, angelica, sage, tansy, yarrow, chives, Russian garlic, and hyssop are suitable herbs for such a perennial border.
Garden of Rocks
Many herbs grow well in rock gardens because they can tolerate changing soil moisture conditions and tight places. Be mindful of the various ways that different kinds of herbs develop. In a rock garden, it is possible for one kind of herb (like yarrow) to dominate and compete to the detriment of other types.
Garden in the Cottage
To generate a potpourri effect, the cottage garden concept calls for planting perennials, herbs, possibly alongside fruit trees and some old-world shrubs. The cottage garden offers a variety of textures and hues that will be appealing throughout the year.
What potential uses for herbs in a landscape?
Making Distance Visible
Aloe, angelica, and geraniums, as well as plants with brightly coloured leaf and coarse textures, provide the idea that they are nearby, whereas rosemary, some thyme species, and plants with darkly coloured foliage give the impression that they are farther away than they actually are. In order to give the impression that the garden is larger than it actually is, place plants with coarse textures and brilliant colours in the foreground and fine textures and dark colours in the backdrop.
Distractions from watching
Shrubs or hanging baskets can be utilised to conceal views that can draw people’s attention away from garden attractions. The feature is highlighted by putting a green barrier in the path of all save the one where you want attention to be focused.
Building Walls Higher Herb baskets or pots placed on top of walls will accomplish two things:
- The wall’s height should be increased.
- Modify the harsh line at the top of the wall to a soft line.
Plant drapes
To construct barriers with different densities, herb baskets can be hung at various heights and spacings. A sensation of enclosure may be created by the plant curtain’s simple ability to screen the view, letting you see through but possibly eliminating outside distractions. The space encompassed by the herb plant wall may become completely obscured by a lot of baskets that are hanging closely together.
Above Sight Level Plant Life
Occasionally a plant is required to break up the uniform height of a room’s floor or ceiling (indoors or out). This method of breaking the even line will make the area less professional and more informal. A basket suspended from the ceiling frequently performs this function better than a container on the ground (or floor), maintaining the feeling of space.
Topiary
In the extremely old art of topiary, plants are pruned into various shapes, such as balls, pillars, pyramids, arches, or even the form of an animal or structure. There are several methods for growing herbs in topiary, and many of them work well. One includes building a metal or wire framework and growing the plant over it while trimming it to maintain the frame’s shape.
Simple wire frames can be made by manually bending thick wire with the help of pliers. Wire can be bent around a huge barrel or tub to create circular shapes.
A wire circle perched atop a straight pole is one of the most basic topiary designs. The wire circle should be tied to the top of a wooden post used for the pole. It is possible to purchase more intricate shapes, such animals, already constructed, from some of the “boutique style” garden stores located in major towns. Some of the greatest herbs to practise on wire frames are those that climb or creep.
Sometimes moss is placed inside of hollow wire mesh frames and maintained moist to encourage the growth of creeping plants like Corsican mint or pennyroyal.
To make topiary, it is more common practise to train a plant from a young age through trimming and staking as support is required. As they lack a frame and must rely on strong stems to maintain their shape, more woody herbs are typically favoured for this type of training. If more support is required, stakes can be used.
Regular pruning, regardless of the technique, is essential to creating a good topiary. When topiary deviates too much from its original shape, it can be nearly hard to restore it.
FOR A FUTURE IN THE HERB INDUSTRY, STUDY THIS
The herb industry is more significant than most people think, providing essential ingredients for a wide range of products we use on a daily basis, including toothpaste, detergents, deodorants, and scented oils.
Only serious students who want to start a business or pursue a career with herbs or herbal products should enrol in this course.
In addition to providing you with the knowledge and awareness you need to begin a more viable career in the herb industry, graduating from this course will also serve as a declaration to potential employers, clients, and customers, letting them know that you do, in fact, possess knowledge of herbs that exceeds that of most people working in the sector.
ARE YOU SEEKING SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
We have a range of other courses
- accessible via our Microcredentials training programme (LearnHowTo)
- shorter, more affordable courses
- covering topics that are not included in the primary ACS Virtual Education programme
Examples include:
- Topiary
- Home Garden Permaculture
- Deer Farming
- Agroforestry
- Fodder Trees
- Urban Forestry
- Growing Tomatoes
