POTS of flavour
MaNY herbs lend themselves to being grown in containers, whether on a windowsill in a flat, or in a sunny spot in the garden. a collection of themed, small pots always looks attractive, as well as making a useful little herb garden that will fit any space.
If you are growing herbs in pots, you should ideally use fresh compost for every sowing or planting. There are two considerations when choosing or preparing potting compost. The first is the ideal growing conditions for an individual plant. Parsley or basil, for example, will need a really rich, moisture-retentive mix, whereas Mediterranean herbs such as rosemary or thyme will need a compost that has lots of grit for drainage. I’d recommend buying a bag of horticultural grit ready for use as a component in the mix for those plants that need good drainage. The second consideration is environmental. For the past 60 years we have been stripping peat bogs for horticultural use. The result is an environmental disaster akin to bulldozing ancient woodland for bark. If you use peat, you are destroying wildlife on a grand scale. Luckily there are a number of very good alternatives. I use a coir-based compost as part of my home-made mix (adding leafmould and garden compost) and bark-based composts are also excellent.
Terracotta pots suit Mediterranean herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage because terracotta is porous and these herbs prefer very well drained (and rather poor) soil. a shallow pot always works well as you won’t need a deep root run and the wide surface area means all the plants will get as much sun as possible and be easy to pick.
They need regular watering but hate sitting in wet soil. If the water does not flow almost immediately through the pot they are in, then the drainage is not good enough.
however, do not allow them to become pot-bound. any plant that has evolved to live in drought will have roots that want to range freely to seek out moisture, so as soon as the roots become constricted, pot them on.
Place them in full sun somewhere where you can easily pop out and cut fresh leaves, and enjoy that musky Mediterranean fragrance as you pass.