Herb Gardening
What do you need for basic herb gardening?
Full sun The flavour of herbs is in the essential oils produced by the plant. These oils are fully developed in the full hot sun. Some herbs will survive in part shade and will indeed grow (I think mint will grow in a closet) but they will not have the flavour of their sun-baked cousins.
Moderate feeding Again, herbs produce more concentrated oils when they are not lush and growing quickly. The oils become more concentrated (and the leaves more flavourful) when the plants are not growing under the influence of fertilizers. Generally, a shovel of compost is lots of food for any culinary herb in a single season.
/> Moderate water You don't want to let the leaves wilt but again, too much water produces a lush plant. Herbs such as thyme that thrive in dry areas will have less flavour if they are well-watered.
Soil I grow my herbs in the roughest of ground. They do not get the rich vegetable soils as they would become too lush. But in containers, I use an artificial soil mix (the same one I use for vegetables, flowers and bulbs) to grow my herbs. I simply don't feed them when I feed the flowers. And yes, you can grow any culinary herb in a container.
Lemon verbena on my back porch
Indoor Herb Gardening
Indoor herb gardening is something you can do easily but it comes with cautions
Got an Herb Growing Problem?
If you have an herb growing question (and isn't answered in an article listed on the herb gardening growing page, then feel free to ask it here.
If you have a picture of the problem or situation, feel free to upload it here as well (keep the pic under 100K please for faster uploading)
See What Others Have Asked
Click below to see what other gardeners have asked about herb growing
Pruning Rosemary
Hi Doug,
My Rosemary bush, grew too much out of shape. My father in law has cut the plant on one side because it was overhanging, so now I got a very ...
When to plant garlic?
I live in Toronto and I'd like to grow garlic. What varieties do you recommend and when do I plant them?
Doug says that garlic is planted in the late ...
White edge around my parsley I planted my parsley 2 weeks ago. the leaves were rich green when I bought the plants (they were the 6 pack size) now most of them have a white edge growing ...
White spots on parsley leaves
My flat leaf parley has little white spots on several of the leaves - should I be concerned?
Doug says it depends. If the plant is last year's plant ...
red leaf flat leaf parsley I am trying to grow flat leaf parsley in a container from seed on my kitchen counter. I live in a 2nd floor apt with no easy access to the outside, I ...
why is my basil so sparse? I bought basil from 2 different nurseries, nice sized plants, they were starting to grow lush. When I planted them in containers they started to wilt and ...
lavander seed
why do i not get lavender seeds to germinate
Doug says he doesn't know what you're doing. :-) But they're a slow germinator that demands good soil ...
