Often, lovers of spices confuse savory and thyme plants. Guilty in the confusion similar to the sound of the names of herbs. But both savory and thyme rightfully occupy their place in the recipe of culinary spices.
There are more than thirty varieties of chabra in the world. The plant is famous for the strong spicy aroma of the leaves, which contains a lot of essential oils. When added to a dish, savory gives it a special taste. In different parts of the world, dried and freshly picked green thyme is used as medicine and as an excellent seasoning for various dishes.
Cooks use savory in the form of tender, green shoots, they have a spicy, sharp-burning taste and a chic pepper flavor. For prolonged use, the seasoning is dried with the stems and stored in a tightly sealed glass jar. With this method of storage seasoning preserves the taste and smell for a long time. The popular name for chabra is pepper grass. 
How convenient, when you just stretch out your hand to the windowsill and pick a fresh chabra stink that smells throughout the kitchen. And the upcoming dish will sparkle with new, alluring flavors.
Is it possible to grow savory in a pot
Many fragrant herbs grow with pleasure in winter and summer in small pots on the balcony or windowsill. Wonderful spice savory differs quite simple growing at home from seed. Any hostess will simply sow chabra seeds in a pot with soil. When sowing, seeds are sunk into the ground by no more than 1 cm. They are sprinkled with soil and lightly watered. The pot must be wrapped in polyethylene and put in a warm place. After three to five days, you can wait for the first shoots. When delicate stalks appear, we remove the film and set the pot closer to the light.
It should be noted that chabra seeds have short germination and are stored for no more than two years. Therefore, for sowing in a pot, it is desirable to take one-year seeds. When buying seeds, carefully read the packaging, paying attention to the final date of sowing of this particular batch. On the package will be a brief information about the chabre and how to grow it from seed.
Important! Savory breeds well and dividing overgrown bush. Feel free to divide the bush in half and plant it.
Where is the best place to plant
Mini-garden on the windowsill or loggia - a great idea! After all, it is convenient, and fresh greens on hand, and just beautiful. Many spicy plants in our area are grown as annuals, because they do not tolerate winter. And indoors, such spices, including savory, can grow year-round. 
The balcony for spices is like a small greenhouse, where there is a constant air humidity, there are no sudden changes in temperature. There are no harmful insects on the balcony and it is possible to avoid diseases of the open ground. Almost no weeds. The hostess will notice the weed in a small pot and immediately pull out. And that means - no one will take food and living space away from the plant.
Such gardens on the windowsill or on the balcony can be arranged by planting chabra in large pots and drawers. You can place the pots on the overhead shelves and on the floor, or arrange wall racks on which you can comfortably place the pots with spices.
Lighting for homemade chabra
Receiving little light, the plant will lag behind in growth and pull the stalks after a weak window light. Savory feels great in the sun, even contact with direct sunlight on the leaves does not frighten him. Spice does not tolerate dark places and drafts.
Chabru needs lighting for five to six hours a day. In winter, a mini-ogorodik desirable dosvechivat. For this purpose, an ordinary desk lamp with a bending neck and a housekeeper with a daylight lamp is perfect.
When growing chabra in a pot in a room, natural lighting may not be enough.
Did you know? Violation of the light mode can destroy the plant.
Humidity and temperature for growing
Savory grows well when the air temperature is + 18 ... +22 ° С. If the room is much cooler, it may react with root decay and even die. At temperatures above 25 ° C, it is desirable to lightly spray the savory a couple of times a week with water.
Savory is a grass, and growing it is not difficult, but the plant is still southern, therefore it freezes and dies at the minimum negative temperature.
Growing chabra on the windowsill: the choice of capacity for planting and preparation of the substrate
If the plant is purchased in a supermarket already adults, for good further growth it needs to be transplanted. Shop plants are cramped in small pots, and at home, savory can be simply moved into a container more spaciously, using the transshipment plant. Savory at home grows into a luxurious bush.
Prior to transplanting we arrange drainage in a pot. At the bottom of the pot piled a little clay. In case of a transfer transplant, a plant with a clod of earth is carefully shaken out of an old pot and installed in a new one. The sides of the pot fill up the missing ground. We water a little, and our housewife is already conveniently arranged in a new house.
Suitable primer for making a mini-vegetable garden can be purchased at a gardening shop or at a supermarket. The composition of the mixture will be indicated on the soil bag. For savory soil is suitable in which peat is not more than a third. Peat gives the soil acidity, and the acidic soil of the thyme does not suit the taste.
Did you know? Soil mixture can be prepared by yourself. To do this, take a part of the garden land, add part of the humus and half of the river sand. We mix everything thoroughly, and the soil for sowing seeds is ready.
How to plant savory in a pot: planting scheme
Sowing chabra seeds
For the cultivation of chabra in a room garden, seed sowing begins in the spring. The best time for sowing is the end of March - the beginning of April. Before planting savory, the seeds are scattered in a thin layer on a damp napkin and left for a day for swelling and partial nakleva seeds. After that, they are slightly dried and immediately begin to sow in pots.
In potted soil, grooves are made up to 1 cm deep, and chabra seeds are sown in these furrows. When sowing, use seeds at the rate of: on 1 square. m sow 0.3-0.5 g of seeds. The first shoots appear on the 7-10th day. The soil should always be moderately wet. To prevent the soil from drying out in pots with crops, they are covered with agrofibre. When shoots of chabra reach a height of 1 cm, they must be thinned. In one large pot you can leave up to 20 thin shoots of chabra. As they grow, the bushes should be planted in different pots. Tender shoots of chabra are watered in the first 14 days of life only from a spray bottle, spraying moisture.
Planting adult plant chabra
We plant one bush of chabra in one pot, and planting and caring for it are facilitated by the large size of the planting tank. The size of the pot should be at least 3 liters.
Why only one adult plant is planted in a pot of this size? In large capacity, the soil does not dry out so quickly and the root system of the plant develops more freely. With well developed roots, the upper part of the plant grows faster, the stems and leaves of chabra will be larger.
Pots with young plants are placed close to the window. As the spice bushes grow and develop, the containers are moved apart. Between adult bushes should be at least 20 cm of free space. Plants need free space for normal growth and access to light.
Did you know? To avoid frequent watering, it is better to install grass pots away from batteries and heaters.
Features care for chabrom at home
Savory loves moderately moist soil, you need to ensure that the plant is not flooded with water (otherwise the roots will simply rot). But the savory also does not tolerate a long drought. Two or three days without watering, he is able to live, but it is better not to forget to water it in time.
How to water the plant
There is an easier way to care for your chabra. If you often leave the house, you can arrange a wick for the kitchen garden wicking through the pan. In each planting pot there is a hole in the bottom (for the outflow of excess moisture). When planted in a pot plant in the ground laid a wick from a long piece of wool fabric. This wick is pulled through the entire pot, and its tip protrudes out into the hole at the bottom of the pot. Pots with plants are installed in the pan, a wool wick tail sticks out of the bottom of each pot, and we pour water into the bottom of the common pallet. The plant takes water, absorbing it through the wick. With this watering, the plant will never be over-moistened, as it will take as much water as needed. Even through wick irrigation conveniently feedingbe a vegetable garden. In the same way we add solution with fertilizer to the pallet. Clean, tidy on the windowsill. And for the hostess there is no unnecessary trouble.
What you need to know about feeding plants
Window garden with chabr should be periodically fed. The soil in the pot is gradually depleted, all minerals and substances necessary for the normal development of the plant are washed out of it. It is advisable to do top dressing by watering at the root every other week.
- For mineral plant nutrition, it is recommended to make a solution by mixing a matchbox of ash and a liter of water.
- The recommended nitrogen supplement consists of bird droppings fermented with water or a mullein (1:10). But, taking into account the unpleasant smell when using such fertilizer in the kitchen, you can do with any store fertilizer for indoor plants. Usually in such mixtures are present all the necessary chemical elements of the plant (zinc, magnesium, calcium and nitrogen, etc.).
Important! Good results are obtained by top dressing home garden with egg shell extract. This infusion was used by our mothers and grandmothers, the recipe is proven and reliable. To prepare the infusion in a quart jar laid crumpled eggshell. It is advisable to fill the jar with the shell to half and fill it with water to the top. Close the lid and insist in the dark for two weeks. Top-dressing of this infusion fully meets the plant's need for calcium.
Savory: harvesting home-grown
When the branches of an adult plant reach 20-30 cm, they are pruned and cut. It is better to harvest the spice before the flowering of the plant, during this period the branches and leaves smell particularly spicy. When cutting, leave the penetes at 5 cm for the subsequent growth of greenery. 
If you have several pots of chabra, cut 2-3 sprigs from each pot. Then fresh spice on the window will grow constantly. After pruning the plant, water and feed. If savory grows wildly and you do not have time to use it green, dry greens for the future. For such an emergency pruning, the spice is not completely cut, half of the plant is left for fresh consumption.
The savory has a spicy, pleasant aroma, and the cultivation of the plant is not particularly complex. The spice itself grown, no doubt, will give your dishes a unique taste. What to do when there is no problem, but there is a desire to sow and grow spicy plants? Even in a small apartment you can make a herb garden.
After all, with all the variety of store spices, your garden on the window or balcony will not only add flavor to the food being prepared, but also decorate your home and lift your spirits to you and your loved ones.
