How to Produce a Container Herb Garden

If you haven't room for even a small back yard herb garden, a container herb garden is a good substitute. You can start one with ice cream or yogurt cartons or wooden containers. However, I suggest using terracotta pots. They are not costly and will last longer.

Choosing and Preparing your Chosen Container

When you begin your container herb garden choose a container that’s big enough to hold four to five medium-size herb plants with plenty of space in between each one. Fill it up to within a small distance from the top with an appropriate soil mixture that has the right consistency to encourage root growth and permit drainage of water. Garden soil can be OK to use, but it’s a great deal safer to make your own mix by combining good quality compost with a coarse/sandy material (such as Perlite). Use one portion of Perlite and two parts of your compost and combine them together thoroughly.

Planting out Your Chosen Container Herb Garden

Before you put the compost mixture into your container, ensure that it's got a hole in the bottom for drainage and put some little stones or stony gravel on top of the hole to promote drainage and thwart soil loss.

For your first container herb garden I advise that you purchase the herbs you want to grow from a local plant sales outlet. When you plant the herbs in your container leave sufficient distance between each plant to permit growth. The suggested planting distances differ from herb to herb because some herbs can grow to be very big and smother the smaller less vigorous ones as they develop.

Caring for Your Container Herb Garden

In general herbs like lots of sunlight and water, so you should water your herbs once each day; however avoid over-watering. Watering gradually leeches out nutrient material from the soil, and consequently its necessary to compensate for this with additional fertilizer applied periodically during the growing season.

Towards the end of the season a lot of the herbs in your container herb garden will have developed into large plants. I advise discarding these plants in the autumn after you have harvested the leaves and/or seeds, and start afresh the following year. But, as you become more knowledgeable you might like to experiment making cuttings from stems and roots and gathering up herb seeds ready to sow at the beginning of the following year when you set up your container herb garden once again.

Extend Your Know-how of The Container Herb Garden

All the way through the growing season you'll be able to start using home-grown fresh herbs in cooking, as well as appreciating the aroma of them around your garden.

I hope this article has been helpful, but please bear in mind that there’s a lot more to discover about herb gardening, 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 varieties and uses of herbs - and of course prepare your plans for next seasons container herb garden!