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Photo Credit: Jodi Torpey

A natural for the contained herb garden, basil prefers hot weather and moist, well-drained, loamy soil. Keep pinching the tops to encourage bushiness.

With their many attributes – including having exceptional flavor, typically high yield, a lengthy growing season and low-maintena-
nce requirements – herbs are perfectly suited for life in containers. Even better, growing your own herb garden is an easy way to save money at the grocery store, as well as opens the door to creating all sorts of flavorful culinary dishes and scent-filled projects.

Like many annuals, perennials and biennials (and even evergreen shrubs), herbs can grow almost anywhere in nearly anything that will hold soil and water. This makes them an ideal choice for shallow planters placed in a greenhouse window or hung from a deck railing within a few steps of the kitchen door. What’s more, they’re perfect for small-space gardens.

Herbs typically have shallow roots and moderate growing cycles. As a general rule, herb gardens should be grown in a container roughly as wide and deep as its foliage. A squat container with ample surface area is also an ideal choice. There are even pots designed especially for growing an herb garden – a rounded, vertical container featuring multiple openings that allow several varieties to thrive in the same vessel. Its shape and construction also afford you the ability to rotate the pot so the plants gain adequate sun exposure or, conversely, so that sensitive varieties can be shielded.

Like vegetables, herbs benefit most from virgin potting soil mixed with a healthy dose of organic material and slow-release nutrients (about 1/3 the total soil volume), plus a fertilizer boost every 2-3 weeks, depending on how much water the plant has been receiving. If you find your herbs growing listlessly despite these steps, try submerging the whole container in a bucket of water for an hour, then allow it to drain completely and fertilize again – it’s likely that salt buildup was the culprit. (Deep soaking washes away the water-soluble alkaline minerals.)

Plant your herb garden at the beginning of the gardening season. Most are perennials, and the early spring growth will give them time to mature and permit harvest by midsummer. If they become too leggy, pinch or cut them back to promote new, bushy growth – and keep on harvesting!

Ready to give herbs a try this season? Just take the simple planting steps shown in the following pictures and described in their captions to get your herb garden underway.