Balcony Herb Gardening
PLANTING TRIED AND TESTED HERBS!
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The most popular culinary herbs are:
These are the herbs and culinary plants you'll find in the best cookbooks: thyme, basil, marjoram, sage, rosemary, parsley, celery, rocket, origanum, spring onions, chives,garlic, nasturtium leaves and flowers, sweet violet flowers, lemon balm, borage, fennel and of course if you have a cat, catnip is essential!
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Obviously you will have your own special preferences: spicy, sweet, culinary, medicinal or simply decorative. The wonderful thing is that there is a vast variety from which to choose!
Other flowering and colourful herbs which lend variety and scent to your garden are: Lavender, Nasturtium, Sweet Viola, Pansy, Jasmine, Geraniums and of course Poppies for colour!
An important thing to remember when planting is the size of the pot to the plant. For example, rosemary can grow to a metre or more so you will need a pot the size of about a bucket.
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Thyme is a small to medium size herb (30cm) and so a medium size pot (half a bucket) will be ample. The middle picture is rosemary and the end one is spearmint in the same size pot.
I'm going to suggest a few "must haves" for your startup garden; Basil - sweet Greek annual or perennial, Mint, Marjoram, Oregano, Rosemary, Parsley, Lettuce, Chives and Rocket.
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I've used two books: "The Complete Book of Herbs - a practical guide to growing & using herbs" by Lesley Bremness and Jekka McVicar's "New Book of Herbs" for years and find them brilliant sources of information, so I'm going to suggest you also have a look at them to assist in making your choices.
I like to use sheets of old newspaper as a workbase so that I don't make a mess of the balcony!
Let's start with the photo at the top left hand side. I've got a large water bucket which I use for the potting soil which I've emptied out of the plastic bag. I'm re-using black plastic pots which were originally from the garden centre with large herbs.
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Your herbs may come in a six pack tray like the next photo and if so, gently push each plant out from the bottom.
If the roots are tightly bound up, gently seperate them or they will continue to circle around in the bigger pot and you want them to spread out.
I've collected small stones and gravel for the bottom of the pot - about a centimeter deep - to assist with drainage. Now spade in the potting soil to about three quarters full and then place the new plant in and fill the surrounding area with soil, gently it pressing down.
I fill the pot to about a half a centimeter from the top so that when you water, it doesn't flow over the edge of the pot.
Now all you need to do is place the pots and water with your new watering can
