Herbs Make Everything Better

I thought I would celebrate the start of the new year by planting a small herb garden.  I love herbs.  They are wonderful plants. Herbs are wonderful because they come in so many different shades of green with a variety of different textures and wonderful aromas. Herbs really do make everything better and not just in the kitchen.  They can perfume a room, scent a bath, fill a flower vase and even make tomato sauce from a jar sing.

Planting a dish garden is a lot like following a recipe.  You need your ingredients and a simple set of instructions.  

Your Recipe for Planting a Herbs in a Dish Garden

• You need a container. I chose a small rustic metal container I found at the discount store.  It is watertight and won’t take up much space on my kitchen counter.
• Next add a layer of rocks or even fish tank gravel to the container.  
• You will need enough rock to create a drainage layer that is about 1 inch deep.
• Then comes a surprising ingredient; some mesh window screening.  I trace around the bottom of my container on a piece of printer paper and use it as a pattern to cut out a piece of screen to place over the drainage layer.  This little piece of mesh doesn’t rust or dissolve and it will keep the soil from washing into the drainage layer.

• Now sprinkle about a tablespoon of activated charcoal on top of the mesh.  This will help prevent odors from water that may take time to be absorbed by your plants. I get mine from the local pet store.
• Now it is time to add your soil.  You or going to fill your container to about the halfway point with soil.  For dish gardens I like to use a mixture of commercial potting mix and peat moss.  The peat moss helps keep the soil from compacting.  Making it easier for the roots of your herbs to grow and absorb the nutrients they need to grow.

Time to Plant the Herbs

• Now comes the fun part.  Let’s add some live herbs to this planter.  You can often find live fresh herbs at the grocery store, hardware store or nursery.  I dug mine out of a raised bed I was keeping covered to protect from the frost.  I put 3 different herbs in my planter Parsley, Rosemary and Basil.
• Next add soil around the plants.
• Then fill the container until the soil is about 1 inch from the top because it will prevent spillage.
• Gently press the soil down to help hold the plants in place. 
• Now slowly add water.  I started with about 2 cups of water, waited about an hour, and added 2 more cups of water.  This gave the soil time to absorb the water and avoided a mess of spilt water and soil on my kitchen counter.

Finishing Touches for Your Herbs

• As a final step you can add decorative gravel or stones to the soil if you like.  I decided to add Thyme seeds to my soil.  In a couple of weeks, I should have a very tasty soil cover growing in my herb dish garden. 

You can find additional information on caring for your herbs in our Tips for the Gardener section.  Next week I will show you some fun and pretty ways to propagate more plants. In the mean time check us out on Facebook and Instagram.