Herbs

Herbs in Window Boxes or Pots on Patio or Balcony

If you don't have room for herbs in your garden consider planting herbs in other methods.  Choose a sunny south window for your herb window box and fill it with a good potting mix with added perlite and vermiculite.  Use four plants in a 2' window box or six plants in a 3' box.

Pot an herb mixture in halved old wine barrels large terra cotta pots or urns and place on your patio porch or balcony. An elevated saucer on wheels makes it easy to rotate the pots and keeps algae and mold from growing underneath. Some include a bowl underneath to catch excess water.

Many herbs lose flavor if they are fed too much fertilizer so use half strength garden fertilizer or a half dose of slow release fertilizer. Keep watered well especially in the heat of summer. Most herbs will do well with at least 1/2 day of sunlight but prune them often to maintain bushiness.

Consider: basil parsley [flat-leafed is best for cooking] tarragon various thymes including lemon various mints especially spearmint fennel marjoram oregano [Greek is a favorite] basil [including purplish opal] rosemary [which can grow quite tall and round] and sage.

Some herbs will stop growing and/or die back in the heat of summer. This is of no concern...it is their normal reaction to the heat and bright sun. Don't overwater them during this time of temperature stress. If the roots are kept waterlogged they could rot since the foliage is not needing as high a volume of water to grow. The herbs will recover when the temperature cools.

Here are some suggestions to keep your herbs healthy through the summer heat:

Work a little lime into the soil around many herbs as lavender sage thyme and rosemary to bring the pH up a little [make alkaline]. Pinch back scented geraniums to healthy vegetative buds to make them bushy. Separate plant side shoots giving them space to grow and produce. To help keep the soil evenly moist place a mulch around your herbs. Avoid mulches that increase the acidity [lower the pH] of the soil such as peat pine straw or oak leaves.