How to Plant a Container Herb Garden

Herbs enhance the flavor of everything from mashed potatoes to roast chicken. While herbs can cost a small fortune at the grocery store, you can plant your own for next to nothing. Best of all, it’s easy to do and can provide you with fresh herbs for several weeks, when stored properly. Let’s take a closer look at how to plant a container herb garden.

Decide on a Location

You want to choose a location that gets plenty of natural light. Many people choose to place their herbs in their kitchen window. If you don’t have a good area that gets natural light, you can use grow lights, which can easily be found on Amazon.

Choose the Herbs You Use Most Often

There are several herbs that do well in container gardens. This includes rosemary, basil, chives, parsley, thyme, and a few others. Think about the way you cook and which herbs you reach for most often. For example, if you love to cook Italian cuisine, basil would be a must. However, if you love the taste of onion, chives are also a definite must.

Fill the Containers with the Proper Mixture

You want to fill the bottoms of your containers with pebbles or Styrofoam pieces. The reason is to allow water to properly drain from the roots of the herbs. Next, you want to add a good potting mix that has fertilizer mixed into it. You can then add your seeds or baby plants to the containers.

Label the Containers

Make sure to label the containers so that you know what is what. It can be easy to get some herbs confused. Either write on the container or use a plant marker to label each herb.

Give the Proper Amount of Water

Last, but not least, you want to water regularly, but you do not want to overwater your herbs. You want the dirt to be moist to the touch but water should not sit on the surface. If your herbs begin to turn yellow, they’re getting too much water. If they begin to turn brown and shrivel, they aren’t getting enough.

A container herb garden can be a wonderful addition to any cook’s home. Being able to source fresh herbs from your own garden not only gives you peace of mind that the herbs are safe, but it also saves you money. Once you start growing herbs, you’ll never buy store-bought herbs again.