How to Produce a Container Herb Garden

What Container to Use for Your Container Herb Garden

If you don't have enough space for even a small back yard herb garden, a container herb garden is a good substitute. You can create one with yogurt or ice cream cartons or wooden containers. However, I recommend using terracotta pots. They are not costly and last much longer.

Picking and Preparing your Preferred Container

When you start your container herb garden pick a container that’s adequate to hold four to five medium-size herb plants with sufficient space between each one. Fill it to within an inch of the top with a suitable soil mix that has the right texture to promote root development and allow water drainage. Soil from the garden can be OK to use, but it’s a good deal safer to make up your own mixture by combining good quality compost with a granular/sandy material (such as Perlite). Utilize one part of Perlite and two parts of your compost and combine them together thoroughly.

Planting Your Selected Container Herb Garden

Prior to putting the compost mix into your container, ensure that it's got a hole in the base for drainage and put some small stones or broken flower pot over the hole to promote drainage and avert soil loss.

For your initial container herb garden I advise that you buy your herb plants from a local plant sales outlet. When you plant the herbs in your container leave enough distance between each plant to permit growth. The suggested planting distances can vary from herb to herb because some herbs can become very large and suffocate the smaller less vigorous herbs as they grow.

Looking After Your Container Herb Garden

Typically herbs like lots of sun and water, so you must water your herbs once each day; but try and avoid over-watering. Watering gradually leeches out nutrient material from the soil, and so its necessary to compensate for this with extra fertilizer applied at regular intervals during the growing season.

Towards the end of the season a lot of your container garden herbs will have developed into large plants. I recommend discarding these plants in the autumn when you have harvested the seeds and leaves, and start again in the new growing season. On the other hand, as you become increasingly experienced you may like to start making cuttings from stems and roots and storing flower seeds ready to sow at the beginning of the following year when you set up your container herb garden all over again.

Broaden Your Knowledge of Container Herb Gardening

Throughout the season you'll be able to start making use of the fresh herbs you have grown in cooking, in addition to enjoying the smell of them around your garden.

I hope you have found this article helpful, but bear in mind that there’s a lot more to discover about herbs, and finding out will increase the fun you have growing them. I recommend that during the winter you carry out research to find out about types and applications of herbs - and of course prepare your plans for next seasons container herb garden!