Keeping a portable garden or container garden at your own disposal is a welcome treat even if you only plan to have these plants as ornaments. The fact is that growing herbs won’t be that much different from growing your own vegetables. The following are reminders and practical steps to growing herbs for dummies.
Step 1 – Always Use the Right Herb Container
Our first step in our growing herbs for dummies guide is to pick the right herb container. Your container’s minimum size should be at eight inches in diameter and 12 inches in depth. However, the preferred dimensions for an herb container would be 12 to 18 inch diameter and a 15-inch depth.
Be sure to have drain holes at the bottom of your container. Containers can be decorative if you want them to add color to your home or they could just be any plain plastic or terracotta if you don’t care how they look.
Step 2 – Soil Mix
The next step in our growing herbs for dummies guide is to choose the right soil mix for your herbs. This means you would have to do a little digging and reading about the herbs you want to grow. One mistake you should never commit is just use the soil you’ve got on your backyard.
A good way to avoid all the problems from pests and plant diseases is to use commercial soil mixes. You can buy those from the same store where you got your seeds. Commercial soil mixes are hassle free and easy to use. You can even add compost as additional organic matter. The rule is that you should use one part organic matter for every three parts soil mix that you use.
Step 3 – Fertilizer Choice
The next step in our growing herbs for dummies guide is fertilizer use. Take note that each herb has different nutrient requirements. You can use an all purpose type of dry fertilizer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a chemical or organic fertilizer as long as you use it according to the directions on the package.
Step 4 – Quench the Thirst – Water Your Herbs
An important step in our growing herbs for dummies guide is to water your beloved plants. Take note that if you let these container herbs wilt even just once they might never recover from it. Depending on the type of container you use, the soil can dry out from several hours to an entire day. Terracotta pots/containers tend to drain faster.
Step 5 – Let Them Have Some Fun in the Sun
The last step in our growing herbs for dummies guide is to let your container plants enjoy at least six hours of sun. Remember that a lot of these herbs thrive in hot and sunny regions of the world. There are herbs that can live in the shade but most of them require a lot of sunlight.