For the Home Chef: Starting an Herb Garden

Cooking with stale herbs isn’t the best way to create dishes with complex and layered flavor profiles. As a result, your salads, stews, or roasts always taste like something is lacking. Plus, your local farmers market doesn’t always have the herb you need.

So how can you elevate your cooking?

The solution would be to grow your herbs in your backyard. Putting time, effort, and resources into an herb garden will give you a fresh supply of cilantro, basil, and other cooking essentials. This will also give you the luxury of having what you need right when you need it.

All you need are the right pots, right plants, and the right soil, and you’ve got yourself a herb garden.

1. Use the right pots

You’ll notice that most at-home herb gardens are grown on kitchen counters, porches, or decks. The idea is to place your herbs in a convenient location, so you can easily reach out and grab what you need while cooking. This means growing your herbs in planters or pots. Such small containers also let you save space in the house instead of cultivating an entire garden bed.

You can choose any material for the container as long as it offers enough drainage. DIY mason jar herb pots may look cute, but you’re not sure if they properly let excess water escape. Opt for more functional pots instead, such as durable garden trough planters or clay planters.

Also, make sure to pick containers that fit the size of the plants you’ll grow. An excessively large pot will make your herbs spend too much time growing their roots. This drains their energy for flourishing, reducing your yield. Meanwhile, too small a pot will cause your plants to become root-bound. A root-bound plant can eventually choke itself and die.

After picking out the perfect pot, choose the right plants.

2. Pick your herbs

Choose low-maintenance herbs if you’ve just started your garden. Basil, parsley, and chives all require little care and don’t mind frequent harvesting. The trick is to group the hardy plants and the more high-maintenance ones separately. This way, it’s easier for you to remember which ones demand more attention.

Dill, sage, and rosemary are some herbs that require full sunshine, frequent watering, and good soil. Mint, on the other hand, grows incredibly fast that it may choke other herbs. So be sure to keep it in a single container, away from the other plants.

Another trick is to use starter plants for your herbs. This saves you several weeks of growing time since you don’t have to wait for the sprouts and seedlings. Chances of a successful harvest are higher as well.

Then, get the right soil for potted plants.

3. Choose the right soil

Use potting soil instead of garden soil for your herb garden. Potting soil is more porous, whereas garden soil is denser. Of the two, the former lends itself better to drainage. Potting soil also stays loose, so it helps prevent root-bound plants.

Finally, practice constant care and attention. Establish a schedule for watering and pruning. You’ll also have to harvest herbs regularly because this primes the plants for new growth. Expect a consistent fresh supply of herbs right on your doorstep when you put in the effort and use the right planters.

Durable Planters for Your Herb Garden

PolyStone Planters carries a wide variety of stylish garden planters to choose from, from tall columns to low square designs. Our planters look like real cast stone, so they increase the aesthetic appeal of any room you place them. Lightweight yet durable, these planters are perfect for your at-home herb garden, since you can move them around without breaking a sweat.

Call us today or send us an email for more information about our products.