Tips for starting a container herb garden: A guest article

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fresh herbs-1
Fresh herbs are one of the most expensive items you can purchase at the grocery store. And what’s more, you have to buy them in bunches. But what if you just need a dash of rosemary or a sprig of thyme? Rather than buy overpriced herbs that might rot away in your refrigerator – unless you take the time to dry them – consider starting an herb container garden. You’ll have fresh herbs at your fingertips every time you cook. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Choose a Sunny Location

Your herbs will grow more leaves if you put your container herb garden in a sunny location with some late afternoon and early evening shade. Herb gardens are best kept near a water source and as close to your house as possible. By putting your herbs in a convenient space, they will be easier to care for and to collect. Placing a long, rectangular potting container along your window sill will give you even easier access to your herbs.

Large Pots and Good Drainage

For people who love to cook regularly with their fresh, garden herbs, consider using large pots with good drainage instead of dealing with a bunch of small pots with one plant each. A 12 inch pot, for example, can hold about three to four plants. Be sure to check the bottom for adequate drainage holes.

Plant Herbs That Like Similar Conditions

Next, you’ll want to plant herbs that enjoy similar conditions. For example, if your palate prefers the spices of the Mediterranean, you can plant Thyme, Sage, and Rosemary together. Oregano, Lavender, and Marjoram are also a good mix. All of these plants like lots of sunlight and soil that’s on the drier side.

Use Top Notch Potting Mix

Grab a bag of potting mix, also known as growing medium, instead of potting soil. Container herbs grow best in potting mix because of its sterility and its ability to simultaneously retain moisture and aerate. You’ll have to add your own fertilizer to the potting mix and look for potting mix that contains some or all of the following.

* sand
* fine pine bark
* peat moss
* vermiculite
* perlite

Use Just Enough Water

It’s important not to use too much water or not enough water in your herb container garden. If you use too much water, you can cause fungus growth, pest problems such as gnats and root rot. On the other hand, too little water can cause your herbs to wilt. Wilting can stunt or even kill a plant.

You should only water your herb container garden when needed. To determine this, stick a finger into the plants’ potting mix, about 2 to 3 inches down. If it feels wet, don’t water. If it feels dry, water. Also keep in mind that young, small plants require less water than their mature counterparts.

Herb container gardening is a rewarding and economically smart way to add fresh, healthy herbs to your favorite favorite recipes. By following these tips and starting your herb garden today, you’ll add a touch of healthy living to your life.[ois skin=”below post”]

All-star lettuce after a hard freeze

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all-star lettuceWe’ve had 2 nights of hard freezes-one worse than the other. This is a picture of all-star lettuce. It’s a cut-and-come again lettuce that went through both nights with no protection at all. This is an example of how some things are more hardy when they are smaller. They did warm up and thaw by the end of both days. If this had been an established head of lettuce, after two freeze/thaw periods it would be a bowl of soup-all mush. I have other things that were protected and without exception everything is completely fine. The question I always ask myself when it gets this cold is “do I have anything in the garden that doesn’t like cold weather?” Fortunately I don’t. I’ve got a picture of some leeks where there is frost on the leaves and they are just perfect. By matching the right crop with the right season you eliminate all kinds of worries. As a side note, this spacing pattern breaks the general rule of planting lettuce. This is done because they will not be full heads of lettuce but rather part of a mesclun salad mix that will be cut only twice. After that, I’ll amend the soil and replant with something from the root or fruit varieties. Soil amendments and crop rotation. Couldn’t be any easier than this.

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TWE first spring delivery

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TWE 041514-1st deliveryI only grow for 5 customers but this is the first delivery for the 6 week spring season. What’s in there you ask? Radicchio, mizuna, claytonia, cilantro, poc-choi, carrots, swiss chard, and an artisan lettuce mix. The mix has a combination of black seeded simpson, red cross and skyphos lettuce, spinach, and tokyo bekana. The whole idea is simple: take a handful of lettuce and add any of the other salad green “mix-ins” for a different tasting salad for several nights. It’s not really cheap but my customers enjoy the freshest tasting salad greens and veggies around-especially this early. None of the local CSA’s are up and running at this time. The greatest thing? Taste-taste-taste! And no chemical/pesticide/fertilizer residues-ever.

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Poc choi

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joi choi march 2014I’ve been able to plant 5 or 6 squares of poc choi this spring. It’s too many-I probably only needed 3. Being planted at 4 per square foot, I’m not sure what I’ll do with 24 of them. About the only saving grace is they won’t come up all at the same time. You can see that there’s more than 4 in this picture. I was able to carefully lift out the extra plants and place them in other squares. I should have done it right from the beginning and only planted 1 or 2 seeds in each hole instead of what I ended up doing. This particular variety is a favorite of ours-Joy Choi. It’s a little more slender than the early variety I’ve grown before but just as delicious. These stir-fry’s with poc choi in them are just the best. My first spring harvest deliver season starts in less than 2 weeks. It looks pretty close to being ready.

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Red Cross lettuce after one week

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Red cross after 1 week of sprouting 32914Remember these from last week? After placing the sprouted lettuce seeds in potting soil, this is what they look like after one week. There are huge advantages to this method. If I had attempted to direct seed this in the garden a week ago, nothing would have come up this quickly with the temperatures we’ve had. I will plant these in the garden in 1 week and they will be fine. It will be April 1st in just a couple of days. In zone 6B this means you can have your spring gardens planted with just a layer of plastic protection. This way you’ll have things in the ground, planted and harvested just in time for your summer gardens to be put in-about the 3rd week of May. In about 2 weeks from today my first delivery of baskets to 5 customers will start. It’s been very little effort. Here’s the goodies they will receive and an example of what you can also consider doing in a couple of days: Mizuna, Toykoy Bekana, 4 different kinds of lettuce, poc choi, swiss chard, tatsoi, radicchio, spinach, cilantro, carrots, arugula, claytonia, and minutina. I also have 3 Sakura tomato plants that are 2 feet tall and are now showing blossoms. These are special “greenhouse” cherry tomatoes that are just excellent. I’ll end up using these for my early summer delivery baskets and will probably have some available for the last week or two of the spring baskets. On April 1st I will start my regular tomatoes inside-San Marzano and other cherry varieties. This will give me 6 weeks of growth by the time late May gets here-perfect timing for them to go out. I’ll also start my cucumbers and basil inside as well.

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