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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Idiots guide to herbs in big outdoor pots

114 replies

Flingingmelon · 14/04/2015 12:02

I live in the SE and my garden gets plenty of sun. I'd like two or three big pots that I can grow herbs in.

I eat a lot of thyme, parsley, coriander and rosemary and a little bit of sage, basil, mint, and tarragon. Would they all grow well together? What sort of percentage space should I be giving each plant?

Can someone point me in the right direction of a how to guide or give me some tips here?

I'm clueless but enthusiastic Smile

OP posts:
Clawdy · 14/04/2015 20:43

So many useful tips, many thanks Flowers

thatsn0tmyname · 14/04/2015 20:44

They should grow well together unless your 1 year old decides to sit on them

mortil2 · 14/04/2015 20:56

Fantastic thread! Thank you everyone for all the useful advice. I have tried for a couple of years to grow herbs, but it had mostly been eaten by slugs. Big ones! I WILL beat them this year

AdoraBell · 14/04/2015 21:19

Sneaking in to pick up tips.

I've always had good luck with rosemary, literally just plonked it in the ground and off it goes, but -hopefully- will be moving soon-ish and starting again.

AdoraBell · 14/04/2015 21:22

I've used crushed egg shells to keep slugs and snails away from plants. Wash the shells first so they don't attract ants etc and scatter around the plants.

Missanneshirley · 14/04/2015 21:26

I always get baffled by the different types of mint (and can testify to its spreading powers!)
which is the most 'useful" kind of mint (for mojitos etc? Grin )

Jux · 14/04/2015 22:06

We have bronze fennel! I'd forgotten about it. It grows really really tall, mine is about 10ft, and has tiny little yellow flowers in dense flat formations. No one but I likes the flavour so I don't use it much. HOWEVER, loads and loads of flying things love it. They are all over it all summer, and leave us completely alone. Well worth having only for that ( found a pair of snails mating in it last year - about 4ft up! - worth seeing). It seeds easily though, and you will be constantly pulling up little fennel plants.

Scurryfunge, both my basils are indoor plants. The garden's pretty windy so even on a good summer the basil isn't really happy outdoors. It also saves me from having to go out to the garden to pick it as I use it all the time.

Jux · 14/04/2015 22:09

The best parsley I've ever grown was in the rose bed. If you look at companion planting, that's one which really works!

MoreBeta · 14/04/2015 22:12

Really interesting thread. Just about to plant a small herb garden outside my kitchen door in a hot sunny backyard between roses and other shrubs.

A keen gardening friend advises buying a selection of healthy supermarket herb plants that she uses regularly and planting them out in early spring.

In addition she has a bay tree.

She just buys new plants each year as she says it is no worth fiddling about growing from seed.

Also echo what others say. Do not plant mint in a border I runs wild!

Bifflepants · 14/04/2015 22:25

Did anyone explain bolt? it means when the plant shoots up and flowers, and there are barely any useful leaves left. Coriander, parsley and rocket all tend to do this, particularly in hot dry weather. Coriander is the worst for it, although here in NZ, you can over-winter coriander and it tends to be more leafy and not bolt. So spring and Autumn in the UK may be best for coriander. I could never have success with basil outside in the UK - too cold and the slugs were a menace.

IvoryMadonna · 14/04/2015 22:48

Parsley is a biennial, so it doesn't bolt until its second year.

Am I the only person in the world who can't grow mint? Sad I can plant it free range, never mind your pots or bottomless buckets, and far from rampaging throughout the garden it soon dies away never to return. The garden is south-facing and has little shade, so probably too dry. I have got a little bit going around the base of a juniper bush, it's come up the last three years but it's very limited.

JoffreyBaratheon · 14/04/2015 22:51

Of those plants, mint prefers much damper soil and more shade. I'd grow that in its own separate pot! If growing a limited amount, you might as well skip the usual mint you get in the supermarkets, and grow an interesting variety: how about a variegated one, a purple one... or something like apple mint?

Herbs prefer benign neglect. Anything obviously Mediterranean will be happy to not be over-watered. I don't grow many herbs in containers, but in the garden I never bother composting or feeding herbs. They shouldn't need it. In a container, nutrients might get depleted more easily, though...

I actually exploit the more spreading herbs like lemon balm and mint and use them as ground cover.

MoreBeta · 14/04/2015 23:01

Mint grows well in partial shade. My last rented house had an entire border full of it and only had 2 hours sun a day and freezing in winter!

ChopperGordino · 14/04/2015 23:08

I tip out coffee grounds into the herb pot. Apparently the slugs don't like it and the herbs haven't objected so far

bunchoffives · 15/04/2015 00:04

Ivory I'm well impressed you've got a juniper bush. Did you know they are endangered now? Where did you get it from if I may ask? can i have a few cuttings please Grin

Companion planting can work really well - sage with carrots, mint with peas and potatoes, marigolds (calendula) with broccoli/cabbages - they all help to keep various bugs and flies away.

I'd also recommend Angelica, Marshmallow and Comfrey (all 3 very big plants) for any boggy ground you may have. Angelica stems can be candied (dried & preserved in sugar). Marshmallow roots can be dug up and turned into the marhmallow 'sweets' (much more delicate than bought). Comfrey can be left steeped in water for a few weeks to make a great tomato feed/liquid fertiliser.

I've also got soapwort which I have made a form of soap from.

And Sweet Cicely, which is really good with any stewed tart fruit, completely neutralises the tartness.

Also french fennel grows lovely bulbs which are delicious homegrown.

And may all time favourite is lemon thyme. I put it in and on a roast chicken and it makes a lovely flavour. Also in homemade lemonade. (And lemon balm seeding everywhere is no problem to me - it smells gorgeous in the garden and the bees love it - as they do hyssop )

IvoryMadonna · 15/04/2015 00:25

Sorry to disappoint, bunchoffives, but it's not a nice berry-bearing juniper, just one of those prickly columnar things. I don't know what sort it is, but it's not really a bush, more a tree.

I've got plenty of lemon balm too Grin I don't mind it, at least it's an attractive and useful weed.

Jux · 15/04/2015 00:33

I would like all of this: www.haxnicks.co.uk/garden

bunchoffives, I want all your herbs!

Bearleigh · 15/04/2015 07:29

One herb I really love is pineapple sage. I've never used it in cooking but the leaves smell gorgeous and late in autumn it gets deep bright red flowers. It is very tender (ie I've never had one live through winter).

JamNan · 15/04/2015 08:20

Dill is very easy to grow from seed and it can be dried for winter use too. I grew lemon verbena last year and dried the leaves for pot pourri. I didn't think it would last the winter so I composted it. Sad

I find basil attracts whitefly so be vigilant.

Anyone in the SE I can recommend The Walled Nursery near Hawkhurst. They do loads of herbs as seedlings all homegrown.

AlternativeTentacles · 15/04/2015 08:24

If we are talking fab herbs, some to consider:

Swiss mint, which is divine and fab in drinks. Black peppermint is the one if you want to make a mint extraction in alcohol.

Lemon verbena, just one leaf will flavour your drinks

Stevia, the sugar leaf. Again, so so sweet it will stun you

Bronze fennel. Grows to 6ft, and when you chop it back chops it fine and add to your compost, it helps the compost stay sweet

Oregano. Once you have it you will always have it but let it flower, the bees go mad over it.

Coriander, grow with carrots and keep trimming it to disguise the carrot smell and confuse carrot fly. Also, grow leaf coriander for the leaves, also called ciltrano as the seeds laballed coriander are for seeds and thus are actually bred to bolt. Hence people thinking it bolts all the time. And sow in situ, dont move it, it doesnt like being moved.

Basil, sow a whole pack of seeds in a bed once it gets warm and chop it in bulk once 1 ft tall, whizz in a food processor and freeze in ice cube trays for a boost to your pasta for the winter. deelicious.

And for all herbs, keep them chopped back to keep them bushy. And add all the choppings if you arent using them to your compost bins to keep them sweet. But for rosemary and lavender, dont chop back into old wood as it may not grow back. Leave some choppings on the ground and as you walk over them, the smell will be crushed out and waft about you.

CruCru · 15/04/2015 08:51

I'm so silly - I hadn't realised mint likes shade (even though it's really like stinging nettles which also like shade).

shovetheholly · 15/04/2015 08:57

I second the recommendation for Angelica simple for structural interest - it's amazing - like a triffid in your garden! Kids will love watching it grow. But only grow if you have LOTS of space. Expect something that goes from zero to eight feet tall in a season Shock

Has anyone tried growing Szechuan pepper? I've heard a lot about it (mainly from that Mark Diacono fella). You can pick the peppercorns right off the plant, and they are a really lovely, spicy taste. I am thinking of getting one, but slightly worried due to the fact they are so expensive!

JamNan · 15/04/2015 09:18

Angelica what a good idea.

Alternative Tentacles what is stevia?

PJsAreDaywear · 15/04/2015 10:28

I'm marking my place as I will be attempting to revive my herbs this year.

I have Rosemary in the border and it's really not thriving, despite having lots of sun. From reading this thread, I think it may be because it's a very heavy clay soil. Is there anything I can do to rescue it - should I dig it up and put it in a pot? Or dig it up and dig a load of sand through the soil and replant..?

SprungHasSpring · 15/04/2015 10:56

Mint likes everywhere! I have some that I can't get rid of despite my best efforts in full sun and it grows like crazy.

Ditto lemon balm.

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