A Bed Above The Others

Raised beds are ideal for growing herbs. (Click here for raised beds in detail and how to create one for your garden) Six inches (15 cm) is a good height for an herb bed (an inch or two lower in hot, dry climates where the soil dries out quickly); they can be any shape, but rectangular beds are the most practical.

If you must purchase topsoil to fill your bed, be aware that it usually contains little organic matter and few nutrients. Be sure to mix it with compost or some other organic matter (50:50 ratio).

Of Herbal Bondage: Growing In Containers

Herbs adapt so well to containers (click here for a complete discussion of container gardening) that you can grow an impressive collection even if you have nowhere to garden but on a balcony or in a window box. Most annual herbs can thrive in pots for their brief span on earth, and many perennials (click here for more on perennials) also cotton to these cozy confines.

Even if you have a sprawling estate, you should consider containerizing some of your herbs — for several good reasons. If you have heavy clay soil, pots can give herbs better drainage. You can readily move frost-shy plants (like rosemary) and tropicals (like ginger) indoors. If your herbs seem unhappy, you can instantly give them shadier, sunnier, wetter, or drier conditions. You can grow herbs with different soil and water needs next to each other if they’re in pots. And if you simply don’t like the way your herbs are arranged, you can create new combinations in minutes, rather than hours, weeks, or months. By setting potted herbs on pedestals, stairs, concrete blocks, or old milk crates, you can bring them closer to your nose for sniffing, to your fingers for stroking, and to your pruners for harvesting.

A pot that actually holds plants is a growing pot. An outer, decorative container is a cachepot (cash POE); you can slip a plain-Jane plastic growing pot into a cachepot for instant pizzazz.

Most plants that fail in containers that are placed outdoors do so for lack of water. Heavy spring rains can lure gardeners into complacency. This tendency is especially true with easy-going, low-water plants like herbs. Plan on watering outdoor containers every day from mid- to late-summer, more often and for a longer period of time if you live in an arid climate or if the weather is windy. (Gardeners in hot regions also should avoid planting in small containers, which dry out more quickly).

Herbs are by and large strict dieters, turning soft and vulnerable when overfed. But because most of the soilless mixes you use in containers are the equivalent of white bread and water, you need to give them some chicken and broccoli periodically. Give the potted plants the same healthy, organic stuff that you would give the herbs in your planting beds: seaweed or fish emulsion. For herbs growing in containers, use half the recommended amount in monthly doses.

A final reminder: Potting soil is like bath water. You need to toss it after it’s been used (in this case, at the end of the growing season). If you’re raising annual herbs, recycle the contents of your containers. As long as the plant wasn’t diseased, add it and the soil mix to the compost pile. (If you’re growing perennial herbs in containers, repot them, or at least refresh the potting mix they’re growing in, every two or three years.  ....read more