Whether you are a a long time gardener, or a beginner--these tips can help you grow your porch herb garden!
The porch is a surprisingly good place to start seeds as well as harden plants to outdoor conditions. The porch is also a great place to start an herb garden!
I've been gardening since I was ten years old. Growing up on a farm you have no choice but to help in the family garden lol. The skills I acquired during my childhood has continued to serve me well. I started my own garden four years ago at age 21. Since then I've gardened everything from succulents and vegetables to flowers. By far, herbs are one of my favorite things to grow!
In my time herb gardening, I have gathered a few tips on the subject. I hope they prove to be helpful to all!
1) Plant Herbs Together
This is one of my newer tips. For a long time I planted my herbs separately of each other. Lately, however, I have started to combine them. Growing herbs together has several growth benefits for the plants. However, you need to be careful about combining herbs. If you have a water hungry herb, don't combine it with a dry soil loving herb such as garden sage.
A few good combos are:
Mint and Cilantro
Rosemary and Thyme
Oregano and Basil
Sage and Rosemary
2) Make Sure Pots are Big Enough
Don't inhibit your herbs' growth by planting them in too small pots. Herbs will need room to grown and many herbs such as oregano propagate (have herb babies!) and will need room to do so!
3) Never Take from Your Herbs Without Giving to Your Herbs
Sometimes it can be tempting to over use your herbal garden once it starts producing. Remember that taking from the plant is still a strain on it, so the safest thing to do is to never take from the plant without giving back to it as well. How do you do this? The easiest way is egg shells. After making an omelet or egg salad, wash out the shells and let them dry. Store the shells in a mason jar. When you harvest from your herbs, grind up the egg shells and sprinkle the shells in the soil around the herb. Egg shells are a natural fertilizer that is eco friendly and great for your plants!
4) Research your Herbs
Research helps most things, so try to do some research on the herbs you want to garden. The main thing to research is which herbs love water, love dry soil, love sun, and love shade. The quickest way to kill an herb is to either under water or over water-- to over sun or under sun. Plants are each unique and require different things. Make sure you can provide them the things they need most! Herbs like dill, rosemary, and sage don't need massive amounts of water and tend to like shade.
5) Always Re-pot Your Herbs
The small pots that herbs come in when you get them from the store constrict the roots and won't allow for growth. The herbs will quickly use up the available nutrients in the soil and eventually starve. So always re-pot!
6) Use Plastic Pots
Clay pots are cute, but often dry out and break. They also don't allow water to drain as easily as the plastic pots do. Water drainage is a VERY important part to any plant's success. Make sure that water can properly drain away from the plant. Remember: any plant can be over watered!
7) Learn How to Properly Harvest
Learn how to properly harvest from your herbs and when it is a good time to do so. Harvesting from a plant that isn't ready can make or break its success. Do some research on the matter and learn the signs of when an herb is ready to harvest.
Drop the pictures of your herb gardens in the comments below! Remember to follow us on the majors of social media and to have an awesome day!
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