Growing Culinary Herbs In Containers - Healthy And Delicious!
By Anja Koch
Copyright 2012 Anja Koch
Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents
Making The Most Of Small Spaces
What is the best aspect for herb growing?
Stuff You Need For Container Herb Gardening
Where To Buy Your Herb Plants Or Seeds
Culinary Herbs Suitable For Container Growing
Dealing With Pests And Diseases
Harvesting And Preserving Herbs
Marinating Herbs in Oil Or Vinegar
Make Your Herb Garden Attractive
Add some colour with flowers...
Chervil - Anthriscus cerefolium
Coriander (Cilantro) - Coriandrum sativum
Garden Cress - Lepidium sativum
Nasturtiums - Tropaeolum majus or nanum
Parsley - Petroselinum crispum
Bay Leaf Tree - Laurus nobilis
Lemon Balm - Melissa officinalis
Lovage - Levisticum officinale
Marjoram And Oregano - Origanum
Rosemary - Rosmarinus officinalis
Tarragon - Artemisia dracunculus
About The Author
Anja Koch has been a plant enthusiast since her early teens. Growing and cultivating plants has always been one of her favorite pastimes. Having finished school in Germany she began an apprenticeship as a landscape gardener.
This was followed by a professional program in landscape design and involved a thesis on Robinsonian Gardens. Anja moved to Ireland in 1997 and since then has built up an award winning garden centre and nursery business. Trading and dealing with the amateur gardener on a daily basis for over 13 years has taught her the challenges and problems that people face when it comes to growing plants and indeed gardening in general.
On her website www.gardening-advice.net Anja and 'Little Miss Greenfingers' help gardeners around the globe to grow and develop the gardens of their dreams.
Introduction
You don't need to be a gardening pro to have a little window herb garden or some patio pots with delicious herbs for flavouring your meals. Everybody can learn how to grow herbs in containers and window boxes and have a supply of these healthy plants available to spice up your cooking and add a unique flavour.
If you don't have a suitable outdoor space you can even grow herbs indoors. All you need is a sunny window sill!
A lot of popular herbs like Chives, Parsley or Oregano are surprisingly easy to grow and need little care. Little Miss Greenfingers will show you the little tricks to achieve successful herb gardening! At the end of this book you will be able to grow your own supply of healthy and delicious herbs for cooking or maybe some healthy herbal teas.
You will also learn how to preserve and store surplus herbs so you will have your favourite herbs available all the time even in the winter.
Growing herbs from seeds is an inexpensive way to grow your own supply of herbs. With this method you can also grow the more unusual herbs that might not be available to buy as plants that easy. We will also show you where you will be able to purchase them!
Of course we will also show you how to grow each culinary herb in detail. We grouped the herbs into annual and perennial herbs to make it even easier for you to learn how to grow your selection.
Now...down to work..
Have fun and enjoy all your delicious home grown herbs when dining!
Chapter 1
Where To Grow Your Herbs
Growing herbs in containers allows you to grow them nearly anywhere even if you don't have a garden. Patios, decks, balconies or rooftop gardens are ideal places for herb growing. And if you don't have that you just grow them indoors on the sunniest window sill you have.
Cultivating herb plants in pots and containers allows you to produce a large amount of herbs in small areas. You will be surprised what you will be able to harvest.
Making The Most Of Small Spaces
If you don't have a lot of room, you want to make the most of what you have to be able to grow many different herb varieties.
Little Miss Greenfingers Tip
Use steps, chairs, benches or stairs to arrange your herb containers. Place the sun loving herbs on top and the more shade tolerant at the bottom. You can also use a shelf and arrange your herbs on it. Window-boxes make use of the window sills and can hold quite a few different herbs which will also look decorative particularly if you combine them with some flowering plants.
Hanging baskets also help to make the most of small spaces. Small and bushy herbs that will hang over the edges are ideal for them. Try different varieties of thyme mixed with alpine strawberries in your hanging baskets.
What is the best aspect for herb growing?
A lot of herbs are of Mediterranean origin and like a lot of sun and heat. A south-facing aspect is ideal for them. Shaded areas on the north side of buildings and windy places are not suitable for growing herbs. Try to find a sheltered spot near a wall or protect them with other plants.
Herbs that like a south facing aspect:
Basil
Bay Leaf
Chives
Dill
Lemon Balm
Lovage
Marjoram
Mint
Oregano
Rosemary
Sage
Tarragon
Thyme
Some plants don't like too much heat and are better off with an east or west facing aspect.
Herbs that are suitable for an east or west facing aspect:
Bay Leaf
Chives
Cress
Lovage
Parsley
Mint
Growing Herbs Indoors
Having no outdoor space is no excuse for not growing herbs. All you need is a sunny window sill or a very bright corner somewhere. The smaller herbs like parsley or chives don't take up a lot of space and can be grown anywhere.
Conservatories or sunny porches are of course also ideal for this purpose. If you don't have ideal light conditions you can help your herbs with some horticultural grow lights as an additional light source. This is particularly useful during the dull winter months.
Soft leggy growth is a sign of not enough light. Plants kept in conditions like that are weak and more prone to diseases and pests.
Little Miss Greenfingers Tip
Maximize Your Window Space:
Use hanging baskets or a hanging window shelf. This can double your growing space and allows for plenty of light for all the herbs. The use of grow lights for plants allows you to grow herbs indoors even if the light conditions are not ideal.
Here is a list of herbs that are suitable for growing indoors:
Basil
Bay Leaf
Chives
Cress
Dill
Lemon Balm
Marjoram
Mint
Oregano
Rosemary
Sage
Tarragon
Thyme
Chapter 2
Stuff You Need For Container Herb Gardening
Containers:
There is a vast variety of pots available. Styles and materials vary and you have to pick what suits your needs and fits in with your design.
Little Miss Greenfingers Tip
The bigger the pot the better the plants will grow. So choose the pots as large as you can. Minimum size should be not smaller than 8 or 9 inches in diameter. Small annual herbs can go into smaller pots.
It is also easier to keep plants watered in larger containers. A large pot will reward you with bigger, healthier plants that will produce more foliage and flowers than a plant in a small pot that runs out of root space, water and nutrients frequently. These plants are stressed permanently and don't thrive.
Which is the best pot material?
Unglazed clay pots are the choice of most herb growers because a lot of herbs prefer a dry and well draining soil. This material is porous and the water can evaporate through the clay.
In plastic pots the water can only evaporate through the surface of the potting soil. These pots are suitable for the more moisture loving herbs like chives or parsley.
Make sure that all the containers you use have drainage holes at the bottom. Check your pots regularly and make sure that they did not get clogged. If your herbs sit in water for a prolonged time they will for sure die! The roots will start rotting and you won't be able to save the plants.
Potting Soil
Herbs prefer a rather poor and well draining soil. You can use a seed compost and ideally mix in some sand, gravel and compost to improve the drainage. Seed composts are lower in nutrients than regular potting soil mixtures.
Make Your Own Soil Mixture
You can't just use garden soil and put it into a pot because it will turn into something like a clump that resembles rock rather than soil. No plant will be happy with that!
If you can get hold of some good garden soil that is not too heavy you can mix it with sand, peat and compost. This will make a suitable mixture for herbs. Depending on whether the herbs need a richer or poorer soil you can vary the amount of compost. Use about 1/3 of compost for poorer mixtures and 2/3 for a richer mix. Make sure to mix everything well.
You can read up on making your own compost here.
Where To Buy Your Herb Plants Or Seeds
Your local garden centre should offer a good variety of different herbs. This is the quickest and easiest way to start off your own herb garden. You can get the plants in different sizes. The larger plants should be ready for harvesting. All you have to do is transplant them into a bigger container.
This is particularly handy if you only want one plant of a certain herb for example Rosemary or Sage. One or two plants of these larger herbs is usually enough for a family and they also are perennial. That means they grow from year to year unlike annual herbs that only grow for one season and then die off. Basil would be an example of an annual herb.
Some perennial herbs also take several years to grow to a size you can harvest from. Just buy those types of herbs as a plant. They include Rosemary, Sage, Bay Leaf and Lovage.
Annual herbs or herbs you need in bigger quantities are cheapest to grow from seed. Little Miss Greenfingers will show you how to do that in the next chapter. Unusual herb varieties like purple or Thai Basil can often only be got as seeds.
So if you are interested in growing the more unusual herbs you have to start them off from seed. This is not as difficult as it seems and it is of course great fun! You will be rewarded with a load of flavoursome delicious herbs.
Burpee and Cooks's Garden supply a nice selection of seeds and herb plants. There are lots of online and offline places that offer seeds. Shop around and see what you would like to grow.
Make sure that the seeds are of good quality and that they are fresh. Old or badly stored seeds might disappoint you and waste your efforts because they won't germinate sufficiently or if they do it will be sparingly.
Fertilizer For Herbs
Herbs need less nutrients than a lot of other plants but particularly pot grown herbs need some feeding. If you don't feed plants that are in containers for a long period they will go poor with small leaves and little growth. Plant food diluted to half the strength and/or longer feeding intervals will keep your herbs happy and healthy.
There is a wide range of fertilizers available. I prefer organic ones for herb growing. Liquid fertilizers that you add into the water might be the easiest to use.
How to recognize starving plants:
It always surprises me that people don't recognize when a plant is starving. I guess I am around plants too long so it becomes second nature to judge the state of a plant.
Here are some hints to recognize when you should start feeding at the latest:
* Yellowing foliage: the new leaves are pale and yellowish in colour
* Stunted growth: the plant grows slowly or not at all, the leaves are small
* Bare plants: the plants start to go bare at the base and lose foliage
Chapter 3
Growing Herbs From Seed
If you like to cook with fresh herbs you more than likely need a good supply of them. Nothing is handier than to just go outside the door to harvest them fresh and full of flavour.
Once you are used to that you won't want to cook without ready access. Particularly if you need big quantities of certain herbs and a constant supply it is best to plant herbs from seed. Growing herbs from seeds is also the cheapest way to produce herb plants.
In general you can grow all types of herbs from seed but it might not always make sense. Growing Rosemary, Sage or Thyme might take a long time before you can harvest from them. You also need only a few plants to have enough supply. For these types of herbs it might be easier and quicker to buy an established plant in your local nursery. Other varieties like Parsley, Chives, Basil or Coriander are easily and quickly grown from seed.
The best and most successful way of growing herbs from seeds is to start them off in seed trays and pots in a greenhouse or poly-tunnel. But if you don't have a greenhouse you can also start them off on a window-sill or conservatory.
How To Plant Herbs From Seeds
For Growing Herbs From Seeds You Need:
* herb seeds
* seed compost
* seed trays
* sheet of glass to cover trays (optional)
* small plastic pots or peat pots
* watering can with a fine rose
1. Prepare the seed tray:
Fill the seed tray with the seed compost, level it and firm it lightly. Don't fill the tray up to the top. Leave about 1/4 inch from the top and water over it with the rose on the watering can.
2. Spread the seeds:
Pour the seeds onto the palm of your hand. Take some between thumb and index finger and sow them thinly and evenly onto the prepared seed tray. Try not to put them too close together.
3. Cover the seeds:
Put some fine seed compost into a plastic flower pot with holes in the bottom. Shake the compost evenly over the seeds. Bigger seeds need a thicker layer of compost than small seeds.
The rule of thumb is to cover them with three times the thickness of the seed. The seed packet will give you exact information on this. Some plants will need light for germination and need no covering. The same applies for very fine seed.
Water the tray with the fine rose on the watering can again.
4. Cover the tray
with a sheet of glass or clear plastic. This step eliminates watering, speeds up germination and keeps pests away. If you don't cover the tray you will have to water carefully and keep the soil evenly moist (but not wet). Once the seedlings emerge remove the glass. Place the tray in a shaded spot in the greenhouse or in your house. It is important to choose a place that is evenly warm and bright but not sunny.
5. Transplant the seedlings:
Once the seedlings have produced their second sets of leaves it is time to thin them out and transplant them into individual pots. Fill the pots with seed compost and poke a hole into it that is big enough for the roots. Loosen the soil in a corner of the tray and lift the seedlings out carefully. Insert the roots into the prepared hole, fill it up with compost and firm it carefully. Water well and don't forget to label your pots!
6. Harden them off before planting them out.
Grow your new herb plants on, until they are big enough to go into their final positions. You can either plant them into the ground or into pots, window-boxes, etc.
It is important to prepare your seedling for the life outside. The easiest way to do that is to move the plants into a cold frame that you leave uncovered during the day and covered over night for a period of two to three weeks. If you don't have a cold frame you can just put them outside the greenhouse for the day and bring them in again at night. Don't place them into full sun in the beginning.
7. Plant the herbs into their final position in the garden or into containers for your patio or window sill herb garden.
Chapter 4
Culinary Herbs Suitable For Container Growing
I want to show some of my favourite herbs for container growing. I will group them into annual or biennial herbs and perennial herbs. The perennial herbs need a slightly different treatment long term in terms or re-potting, container size and feeding. We will cover this in the next chapter about general herb care.
Annual or biennial herbs will only grow for one season or maximum two like Parsley for instance before they go to seed and die off. You will get away with growing them in smaller containers.
Annual Herbs
Basil:
This is probably my absolute favourite and a must have. This wonderful herb makes the summer for me. You can grow different flavoured and coloured varieties but in my opinion the 'Genovese' is the best one to grow with great basil flavour and big leaves.
Chervil:
This delicate looking herb has an aniseed flavour and is used for salads and soups. The seeds germinate quickly in the spring and can be sown quite thick. Chervil will be ready for cutting after 6 weeks. If you make sowings every two weeks you can harvest nearly all year round.
Coriander:
Coriander is used a lot in oriental cooking and has become very popular in the last few years. It is fairly short lived and goes to seed quickly. Sowing this herb every few weeks to have an ongoing supply is the best thing to do.
Cress:
Cress is an ideal and fast growing window sill herb. It is loved for its slightly spicy flavour for salads mainly. It germinates and grows very fast and is harvested when it is a couple of inches high. It is a great herb for children. It grows even on damp cotton wool or kitchen towels and germinates very quickly. It can be grown all year round inside and supplies healthy greens with lots of Vitamin C for the salad bowl.
Dill:
Dill is a popular herb for salad dressings, pickled cucumbers, fish or mayonnaise. It can be tricky to germinate dill so just pop some dill seeds in here and there amongst other herbs and see what happens. They will grow somewhere...!!
Parsley:
You can grow flat Parsley also called Italian Parsley or the curly one. My personal favourite is the flat leaf Parsley. It is more aromatic and has a more intense flavour.
I also like that greenflies can't hide in it as much as in the curly one!
Nasturtiums:
This is a great annual to add color to your herb garden. The big yellow, orange or red flowers are very attractive. You can eat the flowers and use them as decorations also. The leaves are edible and can be chopped into salads.
Perennial Herbs
Bay Leaf Tree:
The bay leaf is an evergreen bush or tree. For mature plants you need a big container. Bay leaf is often used for topiary and can be shaped into pyramid or ball shapes. Use the leaves dried for cooking. I use it a lot for tomato sauces, Bolognese or gravies.
Chives:
Very easy to grow and can easily be started from seed. Its spicy onion flavour is great for salads, soups, yoghurts, eggs or potatoes. Or add it to pancakes or bread and cheese!
Lemon Balm:
Lemon Balm is very easy to grow. One plant per family is usually enough because it grows quite big.
The lemon flavoured leaves are used for salads, mayonnaise, fish and teas.
Lovage:
This vigorous and hardy herb needs a good sized container. The plant goes dormant during the winter and looses all the foliage but re-grows again in the spring. It is used for salads, soups, or stews but only sparingly because of its very intense flavour.
Mint:
This is also a very vigorous grower and best grown on its own in a pot. You can get mint in many different flavours: peppermint, spearmint, ginger, orange, pineapple, apple...
Mint dies down for the winter. Plants can be split in the spring before the new growth starts. Great for teas, lamb, salad dressings and mint sauces.
Oregano And Marjoram:
These herbs need a bit of room and are best grown in wide bowls or containers. It will die away in the autumn to re-appear again in the spring. The pretty pink flowers are very decorative in the summer.
Great for pizzas, tomato sauces, meat and teas.
Rosemary:
Definitely a herb I can't be without! It adds a wonderful flavour to Mediterranian dishes, lamb, pasta and vegetables. It also has a pretty blue flower in the spring. Grow this evergreen small bush in a good sized container in a sunny spot. You can get upright and trailing varieties. They are both suitable for cooking.
Sage:
This evergreen shrub grows into a bushy plant that needs a bit of room when it is mature. They can be kept under control with pruning. Very decorative is the purple or tricolour sage. Use it for Mediterranean dishes, meat, gnocchi, pasta and teas.
Tarragon:
There are two varieties of tarragon: Russian and French.
The Russian Tarragon has less flavour but is more robust. The French one is more aromatic but not as cold tolerant. You can only propagate this one through division and not from seed.
Thyme:
This is another wonderful Mediterranean herb. This small evergreen plant needs lots of sun to develop its aromatic flavour. Add it to tomato soups and sauces, lamb, chicken, pasta or stews.
Try also a Lemon Thyme. It has a fresh lemony touch and is very aromatic.
Chapter 5
How To Look After Your Herbs
Growing herbs of course takes a little bit of effort but you are rewarded with delicious tasty and healthy greens. Herbs though need less care than a lot of flowers or vegetables. Regular watering and feeding are the most important tasks for herbs in pots.
An advantage of growing herbs in containers is that they hardly need any weeding. This is a very time consuming and labour intensive task if you grow herbs in the garden.
Herbs that you keep from year to year might need re-potting every now and again when they outgrow their pots.
Watering Your Herbs
Herbs in containers need to be watered regularly. Believing that they like dry conditions does not release you from doing this regularly.
How do you know if your herbs need water?
If the plants are drooping it is a bit late to water. They might still recover if the compost is soaked well but this is unnecessary stress for your plants. The best thing is to press your fingers onto the compost and feel for moisture. If it feels dry you have to water!
Watering Methods:
Watering from the top: this is probably the most popular method but it might not always be the best way.
Some herbs e.g. Basil might start rotting with this watering method. The soft stems particularly of young plants tend to be susceptible to fungi and bacteria if constantly moist.
If the soil has dried out completely the water will only run over the surface of the soil and run out at the bottom of the pot. You need to soak the pot in a bucket or saucer for several hours to make it soak up the water again.
Watering from the bottom: place a saucer underneath the pot and fill it with water.
Let the plant soak up what it needs and discard any water that is not soaked up within 15 minutes. This method works very well if you grow your herbs indoors. If you use this method outside you have to remember to remove the saucers if you have longer periods of rain. Standing in water for longer periods of time is lethal for herbs (and most other plants!).
Little Miss Greenfingers Tip
Drowning is the most common cause of death in house plants. This can happen easily if you keep your plants in pots with no drainage holes in the bottom or simply water too much. The tricky thing about this is that the plants are showing symptoms of being too dry - the leaves are starting to droop...and most people think the plant is too dry and water even more! The reason for the drooping is that the roots are rotting and can't absorb the water any more.
The best time for watering is either in the morning or in the evening. You can skip of course if the weather is cool or wet. Use your green fingers to determine if your herbs need water.
Watering During The Winter
Don't make the mistake to forget herbs that you overwinter outside. They need some watering during dry frost free periods. Losing them during the winter is more often down to no watering and drying out than to the frost.
Also think of checking plants that you keep in the shelter of walls or under balconies. They might not get any water from the rain and need to be checked more often particularly if they are evergreen.
Feeding Herbs
Although herbs need less feeding than flowers and other container plants you can't completely forget about it. They need some nutrients to do well and keep producing fresh foliage for you to enjoy.
Organic fertilizers are the best for herbs. They contain less nitrogen than chemical fertilizers and also have a slow release action because they need to be transformed into plant-absorbable nutrients by the soil bacteria. That means that the nutrients are released over a period of time rather than in one go. An advantage of this is that you don't do damage to the roots as easily in the event you use too much by accident.