Greenin’ Up

By Sharon Hagemann

Small space gardening: part one

Apartment dwellers, urban homeowners with limited yard space or weekenders with limited gardening time can rejoice at the willingness of herbs to grow in pots. With very little difficulty, anyone can savor the pleasures of fresh herbs grown on the balcony, down the back steps or in a window box. Of course some herbs are more suited to pots than others, but successful container gardening takes little more than a love of herbs and a commitment to water them.

Herbs are at once practical and wonderfully beautiful, and the containers they grown in can complement this dual nature. They can be purely functional—the tried and true clay pot—and act as foils to the subtle beauty of creeping thyme or prostrate rosemary, they can be modestly decorative—glazed or interestingly shaped—or they can be true eyestoppersoriental pots or antique urns, for instance.

Choosing pots and containers for a container garden can be as much fun as growing the herbs themselves, particularly if your container garden is going to be decorative as well as an adjunct to the kitchen. There are virtually dozens of natural and manmade containers that are both utilitarian and aesthetic.

The terra cotta pot is generally considered the “perfect choice.” It is inexpensive, and comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes with a pleasant simplicity of texture, line and color. Of course clay pots can also have textured or etched surfaces or sport sculptured designs.

Parsley or strawberry pots are two frequently used containers for culinary herbs that can stand alone, or make interesting contributions to the design of a container garden. The pots come in varying heights and sizes. Each has a number of small openings for plants at different levels, plus the standard opening atop the pot.

Two things are important when planting one of these jars. First, you must use small plants or rooted cuttings and place them through the openings from inside the pot, firming the soil around the roots, and then filling the jar with soil to the next level of openings before repeating the process. Don’t fill the jar with potting soil and then poke the plants in through the side openings.  Second, either tamp the soil in the center of the pot more lightly than that around the edges or insert some form of tube that will allow water and fertilizer to reach deep into the pot.

Clay pots abound for every type of plant and garden decor. However, there’s no need to limit yourself to one type of material. Containers of wood also make excellent planters for herbs. Actually, any box that holds soil will do, so long as there’s adequate drainage. You can utilize produce, soap or tea boxes. You can also make simple planters from redwood or treated pine, or you can buy readymade versions that range from unadorned planters to the decorative Versailles box.

The most popular wood planter by far is the half whiskey barrel sold at garden and home centers. The shape, the contrast between the wood and iron bands and the relatively large planting area/depth (about 25 inches across the top and 18 inches high), make the half barrel the ideal container for a onepot container garden. That same size and depth make for one heavy container though, so you’ll have to give some thought to location before you begin filling it with dirt.

In actuality, your choice of containers is limited only by your imagination and/or resourcefulness. Old cookware or animal troughs can make serviceable planters. Just remember that the key word is drainage. If you can’t create drainage holes, then you’ll have to supply a layer of gravel or stones to catch excess water that will accumulate in the bottom of the container, and be careful about the amount of water the plant gets.

Part two of this series will focus on types of potting soil, watering instructions and fertilizers.