Herb Potting Tips

Before you get your herbs up and going this spring, you may want to do some pot maintenance and get your supplies together. I like keeping herbs in pots as well as in their own dedicated patch (and almost anywhere else I can find). One advantage of pots is that I can bring them back indoors in fall. This works great for the aloe vera, ginger plant, rosemary, lemon eucalyptus, scented geraniums . . .well, I'm forgetting a few, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Some outdoor sun gives plants a vigorous start on the season and a few mild summer days can take care of pollination too. Just introduce them to the outdoors gradually and keep the light dappled at first. Gentle morning light works too.

Prepare your pots like you mean it, with good potting mix and excellent drainage. If all goes well, your plant buddies will be calling the new accommodations home for a good long while. To keep sand and pebbles from falling out of your drainage hole, cover it with a clean kitchen sponge.  The sponge will hold soil in and help store valuable moisture. (You can pick up a package of sponges cheap at your local dollar store.)

When you're getting your pots together, remember to use varieties with a drainage hole. Soak terra cotta pots so they don't steal moisture from your delicate seedlings, and sterilize your pots if you used them last year for another project. This season try encouraging moss to grow on your pots. It'll lend them some charm and conceal any nicks or cracks they may have received in the line of duty. My motto is: Never throw a pot out if it's bacteria free and structurally sound.

These older posts will help. If you want some tips on a non-chemical way to sterilize problem soil, I'm including that too. A little judicious pot maintenance may give you some extra containers so you won't have to be so ruthless with your spring culling. Having to remove stragglers makes me sad.

Grow Moss on Garden Pots

Unusual Garden Pots

Sterilize and Remove Mineral Deposits from Garden Pots

The Green Way to Sterilize Garden Soil