Growing Cilantro in My Vegetable and Herb Garden

Growing cilantro is easy. And if you’re a first time gardener reading this, then take my advice, grow cilantro.

Cilantro is quick and easy to grow. It takes a few weeks to mature after which you’ll begin harvesting cilantro for your personal use.

And just in case you’re wondering cilantro has a host of uses. (Some uses are really myths). For instance cilantro is used in:

• Dips
• Salsa
• Salads
• Some believe it has the power to extend a person’s life span
• Other believe it’s an aphrodisiac food. (Interesting, isn’t it?)

And if the herb is left to flower, the seeds can be used as garnishes when serving foods.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to grow cilantro. This was too easy of an opportunity to pass up.

I waited until the last spring frost to make space in my vegetable garden for cilantro. I read that a site that gets both sun and shade is ideal for the herb. So I chose an area that’s slightly in a south-easterly direction to the pea plants.

I don’t think my calculations were off. The cilantro did experience both sun and shade plus I didn’t have any issues with them.

Then I went down to my local nursery to buy the herb. I bought one that was already growing in a container and returned to my garden. I took the plant out of the pot and divided it to get it ready to be planted into the earth.

I then dug holes into the garden to place the cilantro divides. The holes were shallow (about a ¼ to ½ inch in depth. I dug them with a knife). Next I simply placed the plants in and filled the hole with compost.

Then I simply allowed them to grow.

I kept the soil a little moist. I didn’t want to over water the cilantro. I heard that this can decrease the flavour of the leaves. So I allowed the soil to dry between each interval of watering.

And after about a week I began picking off the leaves and tops of some of the plants to use in dishes.

It was that simple.

I did allow some of the cilantro to flower. The flowers that they produce are edible and have health properties. They are said to lower cholesterol.

I also allowed the plant to flower because I wanted to collect the seeds. Some of the seeds were to be used to start new cilantro herbs while the others were used in my cooking.

So are you convinced? Do you see how easy growing cilantro is?

I saw the cilantro as a good investment. There aren’t many plants that can be sown and harvested in a couple of weeks. This means that you can grow cilantro multiple times in one planting season.

Additionally every part of the cilantro herb can be used in cooking. The leaves, flowers, seed and even the roots can be added to spice up your meals. That’s what I call quick returns on investment.