If you haven't room for even a small outside herb garden, a container herb garden is a good substitute. You can start one using yogurt or ice cream cartons or wooden boxes. But, I recommend buying terracotta pots. They are not pricey and last much longer.

Choosing and Preparing your Chosen Container

When you start your container herb garden pick a container thats adequate to hold four to five medium-size herb plants with plenty of space in between each one. Fill it to within a small distance from the top with an appropriate soil mixture that has the right texture to encourage root development and permit water drainage. Soil from the garden can be okay to use, but its much safer to make up your own mix by bringing together good quality compost with a gritty/sandy material (such as Perlite). Utilize one portion of Perlite and two parts of your compost and combine them together thoroughly.

Planting Your Selected Container Herb Garden

Prior to putting the compost mixture into your container, ensure that it's got a hole in the bottom for drainage and lay some little stones or stony gravel on top of the hole to encourage drainage and avert soil loss.

For your initial container herb garden I advise that you acquire the herbs you want to grow from a local nursery. When you start planting herbs in your container leave adequate distance between each plant to permit growth. The suggested planting distances can vary from herb to herb because a number of herbs can grow very large and suffocate smaller less vigorous ones as they grow.

Looking After Your Container Herb Garden

In general herbs like lots of sunlight and water, so you should water your herbs once a day; however try and avoid watering too much. Watering little by little leeches out nutrients from the soil, and consequently its necessary to compensate for this with extra fertilizer applied at regular intervals during the growing season.

At the end of the season many of the herbs in your container herb garden will have developed into large plants. I counsel throwing these plants away in the autumn after you have harvested the seeds and leaves, and start again the following year. However, as you become more knowledgeable you may like to try making root and stem cuttings and storing the flower seeds to sow at the commencement of the next year when you set up your container herb garden all over again.

Enlarge Your Knowledge of The Container Herb Garden

Throughout the season you can begin making use of home-grown fresh herbs in cooking, as well as enjoying the smell of them around your garden.

I hope you have found this article helpful, but bear in mind that theres a lot more to learn about herbs, and finding out will increase the satisfaction you get growing them. I recommend that during the winter you do some research to find out about varieties and uses of herbs - and of course prepare your plans for next seasons container herb garden!