My container herb garden

It’s almost summer here in Texas and that means planting season! It’s not like I have a huge garden in my backyard or anything LOL, although I look forward to having one someday soon. We live in an apartment so our balcony will have to do.

I’ve always loved gardening since my Agriculture days back in high school. The process of seeing something you planted from seed grow is so fulfilling. From then on, I was hooked. I haven’t always been successful in my container gardening ventures. I started a couple of years ago, smack dab in the middle of summer. My reasoning was ‘plants love sunshine, right?’ I remember the balcony at that particular apartment back then was south facing and received a whole lot of sunshine. I underestimated the Texas heat. None of my plants survived. I guess it was a little too much sun. I was distraught!!



So after a lot of research, trial and error, I’ve learnt the right times during the year to start planting my herbs or vegetables, what to plant, and the different water and sunshine needs.

This year, I’ve started off with some of my favorite herbs. Nothing like cooking using fresh herbs and not having to buy a whole bunch from the grocery store, when you only need to use a few leaves.

Some of my favorite herbs; chives, basil, oregano, parsley and cilantro

Here’s how I made my herb garden

I used

• 2 rectangular planters about 6 inches deep, with drainage holes
• Natural/organic potting mix
• Various herb plants

Use a good organic potting mix. Avoid regular garden soil when container gardening.

Method

1. Fill your planter almost all the way up with the potting mix.
2. Depending on how wide the planter is, dig up holes where you are going to place the plants.
3. Remove plants carefully from the containers they come in and place into the holes.
4. Cover the holes accordingly.

Water your garden soon after planting.

You can choose to plant the herbs in separate containers or in the same container like I did. Make sure not to crowd them so as to give them enough space to grow.

Also make sure that you put herbs with almost the same growing conditions in one planter. For example the basil and oregano love full sunshine so I put them in the same container.

Do not use regular garden soil in containers. It has poor drainage and aeration and not well suited for container gardening.

I use this fertilizer to feed my plants every two weeks or so.

Don’t forget to water your plants regularly depending on their needs and to fertilize every other week or so.

Do you have a container garden? What do you like to grow? Happy gardening 

A few weeks later after planting. The parsley seems to be doing better than everything else.