Think you don't have room for an herb garden? Think again! In part two of this article, find out how you can create your own herb garden in containers that will easily fit on your patio or even in your home!
Getting Down and Dirty
To get started with a container garden, you will need to
following items:
- Seeds for the herbs of your choice, or plants from a greenhouse
- Enough containers for all of the herbs you wish to plant
- Clean stones or pieces of broken pot
- Soiless potting soil, preferably a mixture that already contains perlite and vermiculite (substances that lighten the mixture and facilitate drainage)
- Plant food
Now fill your container to within an inch of the top with your potting mixture. Rawson cautions against using soil that you've dug from outside because it may contain bugs or disease organisms. Likewise, if using gravel from your driveway as drainage material, you should first boil it before putting it in the pots.
To start your plants from seed, follow the seed package
directions for planting depth and other specifications. After
planting, keep the soil moist by misting it heavily each day.
(Because you will not be seeding the herbs deeply, pouring water
directly on the soil often causes the seeds to displace.) If you
are starting the seeds indoors, you might want to loosely cover
your containers with a piece of plastic wrap to help keep the
soil moist and warm.
Once the seeds sprout, you will need to thin them out. Again, refer to your seed package directions for thinning specifications. Rather than pulling out the unwanted sprouts, though, Sam Bittman, in his book The Salad Lover's Garden, recommends using scissors and snipping the unwanted plants close to the ground. This will keep you from disrupting the root structures of any nearby plants you want to keep.
If you are buying your plants from a greenhouse, you can skip ahead and simply remove the plants from their containers and make a deep enough hole in which to place the plant in. If the plant appears to be rootbound (roots appear matted and thick), gently squeeze and break the soil around them to loosen the roots before putting the plant in the ground. Be sure all of the roots and and no more than an inch of the stem is covered with soil when you pot the plant. Water your herbs as needed the first few days until the plants become stable in their new homes and you are familiar with how long the soil stays moist.
Keeping Your Herbs Alive
Along with adequate water and sunlight, you will want to feed
your plants. You might use an organic plant food that you mix
yourself, or you can use a commercial variety. Be sure whatever
you use is safe for edible plants. Follow directions to know how
often your plants need fed. Only feed your plants during their
growing season, reminds Rawson.
Control your herbs' growth by regularly pinching them back. If you are planting more than one type of the same kind of plant together-such as a few different varieties of mint-Rawson recommends pinching them off to keep them from flowering so that they do not cross-pollinate. Cross-pollination, in this case, would interfere with them all maintaining their own unique flavors.
Whether you want to cook with them, use them for portable landscaping or to enhance the look and fragrance of your home, these container herb gardens will do the trick.
More information:
Want to learn more about growing your own herbs and container
gardening? Check out these resources:
Living with Herbs
By Jo Ann Gardener
1997, The Countryman Press
The Garden Primer
By Barbara Damrosch
1988, Workman Publishing Company
The Salad Lover's Garden
By Sam Bittman
1992, Doubleday
Directory of Herbs
A comprehensive listing of herbs, their characteristics and pertinent information about growing them.
Working in Small Spaces
Excellent resource on container gardening.
In the Garden -- Garden of Herbal Delights
Nice article on growing herbs.
Links, information and more for you
About the author: Lisa Beamer is a freelance writer and mother of three from southwestern Pennsylvania. Lisa's work has appeared in several magazines - both online and in print - including Minnesota Parent, Parenting Today's Teen and WomensBizResources.com. She writes a regular column on age-gap parenting on GeoParent.com, and is a Contributing Editor to ePregnancy.com and for Suite101.com's Religious Topics area. Lisa can be reached at lisa@lisabeamer.com, or via her website, http://lisabeamer.com.
