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help with an herb garden
i want to start an herb garden. i do not have a yard (i live in a condo), but i do have a deck. i have been looking online and i guess i could buy some pots and do it in there. i just have no idea where to start.
i live in the DC area, is it too late to do this for this year?
do i have to start seedlings inside?
what exactly do i need? i have never done any gardening before.
is there a gardening for dummies book because most of what i have found expects people to have general gardening knowledge which i don't.
thanks for the help.
June 13, 2009 ~ Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Re: help with an herb garden
If you're a newbie start some things by seed and buy a few plants. I'd buy rosemary and basil as plants. They always seem trickier to start from seed.
Oregano, parsley and chives are pretty easy from seeds. (and a pack lasts years!)
It will depend if you are doing a few really big containers or one plant to each pot. Things like mint and lemon balm will take over everything else and should probably be alone.
What do you want to grow?
I will break this down super easy for you.
1. Decide what you want to plant. What kind of herbs do you like? Rosemary, sage, oregano, mint, dill, parsley, spearmint, chives, basil, marjoram, thyme, lemon balm, etc. What do you use on a regular basis? Plant that. Make yourself a list of 4 or 5 things.
2. Go to a plant nursery, Lowes, Home Depot, or similar store. In the garden section, look for starter plants. All of the herbs should be available, in a small new plant size in a small pot. Buy one small plant of each type of herb.
3. Look on the tag that comes with each plant. It will tell you how big the plant will get. The larger the plant, the larger the pot. Basil and rosemary can get huge, they need larger pots.
4. Depending on the size of the pots, buy a bag or two of garden soil mix. Miracle Grow brand dirt is good, you can find organic if that is your thing. Ask someone that works there for advice. Generally they love to help.
5. At home: Put dirt in pots, keeping enough room to add plants. Holding on to the plant, turn the small container upside down and squeeze slightly several times. The plant, roots, and dirt should all slide out of the plastic holder. Place plant in pot with new dirt, add more new dirt until container is filled.
6. Water plants after potting. Check daily, water again when the dirt is dry if you stick your finger down into it or if the plant looks wilted.
7. Admire your plants, watch them grow.
Hope that helps get you started!
Yes, that was a much more detailed starter guide than my random thoughts!
Do try a couple of things from seed though, just to see what its like. You don't need fancy pots or anything. You can start the seeds in toilet paper rolls, newspaper pots or take out containers.
I do like starting from seed,but I think it's best to start from plants your first time, so you get an accurate idea of how the plants are supposed to look, behave, etc., so that when you do start from seed, you'll know whether they're growing properly.
I actually went to an herb growing class at the farmer's market near me this past weekend. You can grow most herbs together in a 3 gallon pot. If you're doing it on your deck, just make sure you have enough light for the ones you want to grow. Plant each plant 6-8 inches from each other.
Some plants will get huge if you allow them (ex. Rosemary can be a huge bush if planted in ground but will stay smaller in a container).
As PP said, Mint will grow all over so do that by itself.
I bought some potted herbs last year and stuck them in a pot with some pottying soil and a little compost. I watered whenever I remembered and it grew like CRAZY. Dh marveled that I couldn't manage to kill them because I've always killed everything
This year I bought basil (two kinds), oregano and cilantro since that's what we use most. Last year I grew mint and rosemary too but never used them so I ditched them this year (they're pretty and smell great - I just don't like the taste).
I live in the D.C. area too, it's not too late! If anything, it's still too early to grow directly outside, we haven't started our herbs yet. The last frost in our region is April 30, and pretty much all culinary herbs aren't frost tolerant. Especially basil, that's a very summer herb.
For your first year I recommend starting with buying plants rather than seeds. We boughts plants the last two years and will do so this year, we don't have space for herb seeds indoors because we're already doing tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. It's too late to start from seed anyway, and I think it's important to keep a plant alive for a whole season before trying seeds. Herb plants from a nursery work fine, but our Farmer's Market has a TON and they look healthier and are local. We do oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint, and cilantro, this year we're adding chives. I have a cheap farmer's market hookup for basil or I'd grow that too. Like PP said, grow what you use the most in your kitchen, probably 4-5 kinds of herbs. There's no point in growing something you don't regularly cook with.
I have pictures but stupid Snapfish refuses to function at work. I bought a large, shallow bowl-shaped pot from Home Depot, I'd say it's about 2' across. I put it on our patio table, you'll might need a stand or something to ensure it's in the sunlight. I do not recommend buying a plastic pot, we never could get things to grow in those, we think the roots get cooked.
Fill that with organic potting mix, not garden soil. Potting mix drains better and is designed for containters, garden soil doesn't drain as well and gets waterlogged. Gently remove your chosen herb from its plastic pot, and gently move the roots around a bit so they're not stuck in a square shape from the bottom of the plastic pot. Plant in the bowl, making sure the roots are completely into the soil, like there's no mound of roots bulging above the soil. Water throughly, set in a sunny location (at least 6 hours a day) and you're done! Water when the soil looks dry, for us in Chantilly that's every 2-3 days in the spring and probably every day in the summer. Post again when they just start to flower and I'll tell you how to dry and bottle them, so you don't have to buy jarred herbs ever again!
ETA: As PP said, always put mint in a separate pot! It grows like crazy and will take over everything. I never had problems with rosemary doing that, I plant that in the bowl with everything else. I believe there are bush rosemarys and more herb rosemarys, like the spikes stick straight up. That's what I've bought for my garden.