The Wood-Fired Blog
herb garden in a pallet

Pizza Perfect Herb Garden

Feb 27, 2019Posted by Forno Bravo

Adding herbs to your wood fired pizza is the perfect way to accentuate your favorite recipe. Fresh herbs not only add a bright and unique taste to pizza, but also add healthy vitamins and nutrients to your meal. Growing an herb garden at home is an excellent way to skip the grocery store and ensure you’re getting the freshest herbs available just steps from your wood fired pizza oven.

Check out these tips to create a pizza perfect herb garden of your own:

Choose a Spot

Napolino70 Pizza Oven-bench-garden

Herbs (and seating) are easy to hand next to this Napolino70 wood fired oven!

Your herb garden doesn’t have to be large, but it does need to have ample access to sunlight. We recommend choosing a spot in your backyard that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. You can plant the herb garden directly in the ground or in raised beds. Some homeowners elect to plant their herbs in small containers. The pots are easy to move around the yard. Others choose to add a vertical garden to their yard which can grow a surprisingly large amount of fresh herbs.

Soil Matters

You need to make sure you’re using the best possible soil.  Test the soil in your garden to make sure it has the right nutrients for the kind of herbs you’d like to grow. You may have to add some potting soil to add a rich boost of energy for quick growing herbs.

Pick Your Herbs

basil plant in red pot-water on leaves

Basil is a staple ingredient for pizza and Italian cooking.

An exciting part of growing a pizza perfect herb garden is choosing herbs that you will be using on your wood fired pizzas. Sweet basil is an all-time favorite for pizza lovers who use it on a wide variety of flavors. It also does double duty as it’s an excellent pest-repellant plant making your time cooking outdoors more enjoyable.

Other perfect herbs to grow include oregano and parsley which can complement anything from meat pizzas to vegetarian options. All of these herbs can be grown from seed or starter plants.

Water Correctly

The water that your herb garden will need depends on your home’s location. Some herb gardens don’t need any added water while others in dry climate conditions will need plenty. It’s also important to note if the plants are under any nearby shade that could impede rainfall. Pay closer attention to herb gardens that are covered by an awning or roofline that could limit its water intake.

Harvesting Herbs

The best part of growing a pizza perfect herb garden is harvesting the fresh herbs. Clip basil leaves once the plant is over 6 inches tall by plucking large leaves from the stem. Pick any flowers that appear as well to encourage the plant to continue producing. Many pizza lovers place whole basil leaves on their pizza to add beautiful color to the pizza as well.

Harvest oregano after the plant is over 4 inches tall and continue pinching off leaves to encourage the plant to grow more. Strip the leaves off the woody stems and crush them up in your hand before sprinkling oregano over a wood fired pizza. Parsley can be harvested once the leaf stems have 3 segments. Many pizza lovers like to roughly chop parsley leaves and sprinkle ribbons of parsley over the pizza for a fresh taste.

In summary, having a pizza perfect herb garden is easy to create by following these tips.

  • Choose a spot that gets enough sunlight and is easily accessible to your wood fired pizza oven.
  • Check the soil and make sure to keep an eye on the water that the garden is receiving.
  • Pick herbs that you want to add to your pizza creations and enjoy regularly harvesting them to eat and encourage more plant growth.

What are you waiting for? Make the leap and get planting for a pizza perfect herb garden this year!

 

Author: Rose Weber is a garden care extraordinaire. She has been gardening since she was a child in and loves to spend her weekends teaching her grandchildren all about growing a vegetable patch. You can find her sharing her crop with her friends and neighbors.

* Thank you LawnStarter for contributing this article. LawnStarter is a lawn maintenance company with vetted and insured lawn care professionals available nation-wide. They specialize in responsive service for both residential and commercial customers to help make and keep your landscaping beautiful!

Archives

Have any questions?