Herb gardens are so useful, versatile and easy to grow that they make an excellent addition to any home. Unfortunately not everyone has access to a spacious garden to grow their herbs in. This is where container herb gardens come in. They are great because you just need enough space for a few containers, and you can grow the most wonderful herb garden! What's more, if you ever decide to move house, you can simply take your container herb garden with you!
So where do you start? Well, the first thing you need to do is consider what sort of herbs you would like to plant. To help you decide this, you might want to think about what sort of dishes you like to cook or what you will be using your herbs for. To give you some ideas, the following is a list of commonly used herbs in the kitchen:
Rosemary - Very fragrant and flavoursome herb that goes well with meat dishes. Can also be used to flavour oils.
Basil - Great with tomatoes and often used in pasta dishes. Also commonly used in Thai dishes.
Mint - Very aromatic herb. The leaves of this plant can be dried and used to make refreshing mint tea.
Chives - Especially good sprinkled raw over salads and over roasted potatoes.
After deciding what herbs you would like to plant, you want to go and get the following supplies:
Container/s
Potting Mix / Soil
Seeds and/or herb seedlings
Spade
Watering can
Fertilizer
If you are just starting out, you might want to use herb seedlings as they require less work than growing your herbs from seeds.
Once you have gathered all your supplies together, it's time to start creating your container herb garden!
Fill your container with soil and add a little fertilizer to prime the soil and enhance the growing environment. (Note: If you have purchased liquid fertilizer then you can just add it to the watering water later on.). The amount of soil you put in depends on whether you use seeds or seedling to plant your herb garden. In general, if you are using seeds, fill your container to about 1 inch from the rim so that you will have room to cover your seeds with a little additional soil.
Always check the instructions on the seed packet as they will usually give you more detail on how best to plant your seeds. If you are using seedlings on the other hand, you want to cover the base of your container with only a few inches of soil so that you can fit the seedlings in. When you have arranged all your seedlings in the container you can fill the spaces around them with more soil.
As with seeds, you also want to follow the instructions that accompany your seedlings. If your seedlings to do come supplies with instructions, you can try looking up the information on the internet. These instructions are important for telling you the best growing conditions for your herbs. You might need to move your containers around to give them access to sufficient sunlight to help them grow.
Finally when you are done, give your containers a good water! And of course do not forget to water your herb garden over the coming days.
Follow these step and it shouldn't be long before you have beautiful and bountiful container herb gardens just brimming with delicious fresh herbs!
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