Growing your own herbs is the coolest thing ever. It can save you a lot of time that you spend buying them from the supermarket. It can also save you money because we need herbs each and every day in our favorite dishes. If you are not adding herbs in your dishes, you are missing a lot of flavors and nutrients too.
There are so many different articles are out there to make your indoor herb garden, but in this post, we will talk about growing our herbs outdoor. In this article, we will talk about growing herbs, best ideas about herb garden and types of herbs you can grow in your herb garden easily.
Follow these important steps to make your first herb garden in no time.
Select A Suitable Location
This is a very important step if you are building an immobile herb garden like a raised herb garden bed. Because you cannot change the location of these kinds of herb gardens according to your needs. So, be careful in choosing the best location.
If you are building a mobile outdoor herb garden, you don’t have to worry about this step because you can change the location later. Still, place them in a good location before doing anything. Because they will get very heavy after the addition of soil. Here are a few tips for you to selecting a better location:
- Choose a location that receives at least 6-8 hours of sunlight. If you are living in an area with large buildings, you need to be careful about the shadows of neighborhood buildings and large trees.
- Choose a location that is closer to your kitchen. You don’t want to take a 10-minute walk, every time you need some cuttings of sage OR if you do want that walk (GOOD FOR YOU).
Prepare Your Site Before Planting Herbs
This step is also very important if you are starting from scratch. Herb plants require nice loose soil for better growth. If you have a heavy clay soil is your site of selection, you need to improve it, you need to increase the drainage of the soil.
You can do that by adding some compost, peat moss or coarse sand. Before doing that, watch out for weeds and grasses. Weeds and grasses can cause problems for you later.
Remove the weeds and grasses by pulling them with their roots. If your site has a big problem with weeds, you can perform soil solarisation to get rid of them.
Soil solarisation is a simple non-chemical process to kill the weeds and grasses using the plastic sheets. Watch this tutorial about soil solarisation.
If you are building your herb garden in some kind of planters, you don’t have to worry about weeds for now. You can simply order some potting soil or make your own to fill it up. Remember, the topsoil of your garden is not gonna work in a planter, you have to add some potting soil or compost to grow herbs.
If you are making a raised bed herb garden, the soil recipe is different for this. Read this guide to learn about the best kind of soil mix recipe for a raised bed herb garden.
Also Read: Best Raised Bed Garden Soil Mix Recipe
Ideas For Outdoor Herb Garden
1: Bucket Herb Garden.
This one is an amazing idea if you are on a budget. The good thing about this idea is, you can place your buckets anywhere you want. You can place buckets outside, indoor or even at your balcony or rooftop. Just put some potting soil in the buckets and you are good to go.
2: Old Tires Herb garden.
This one is also a money-saving idea. You can use some old tires to make your herb garden. But don’t use too old tires, because when tires start to break down, they are not fit to grow foods in them.
Pick a nice sunny location for your tire herb garden, put potting soil in them and grow your herbs. You can even paint the tires to add a cool look to your garden.
3: Raised Herb Garden.
This idea is an excellent choice for senior gardeners or if you have back pain problems. There are so many kinds of raised beds you can start with. The height of these beds is ideal for people with back pain.
You can also change the location of these herb gardens. They are also an excellent choice for indoor gardeners. Check out these ideas if you are interested in raised herb gardens.
4: Container Herb Garden.
This one is the most excellent and easiest way to start an outdoor herb garden. You can start with any kind of container you have at your home, like a bucket herb garden I already mentioned.
Grow bags and pots are also a great choice to start with. I believe grow bags are great. They are cheap, bio or non-biodegradable, easy to carry and have great aerated fabric. You can buy grow-bags from amazon here.
How To Grow Herbs From Seeds?
Growing herbs from seeds is a little different process than growing vegetables. The seeds of herbs take a little longer to germinate and the rate of germination is lower. You will need extra patience during the germination period.
Different herb seeds have different optimal temperatures to germinate. Some seeds need a chill treatment before sowing in the soil, some grow better without any treatment. Some seeds need light to germinate, some needs cover of soil for germination. Check out this chart for more information.
How To Grow Store-bought Herbs?
Growing store-bought herbs is a very easy method. Follow these steps to grow herbs from store-bought cuttings.
- Pick some very nice green cuttings of herbs.
- Remove all the leaves from cuttings, leaves some at the top of cutting.
- Now put those cuttings in a bottle or glass of water.
- Change the water of the bottle or glass every day.
- After a few days, depending on your herb type, roots will appear on cuttings.
- When roots grow a little, its time to plant that cutting in the soil.
- Plant the cutting with roots in the nice soil, give it water and sit back.
Note: This method is not gonna work for each and every cutting you have. Because the store-bought cuttings are sprayed with some chemicals to increase their shelf life. So wash your cuttings before putting in a bottle of water.
Best Herbs for an outdoor Herb Garden
Here are a few easy to grow herbs to start your first herb garden. You can start growing these herbs from seeds, from seedlings (from nursery) or store-bought cuttings. You can learn some details about the seeds of herbs from the chart above.
1: Basil.
There are different kinds of basil you can grow in your herb garden, like sweet basil, lemon basil, and purple basil. This herb is very sun-loving. In summer basil grow very well.
6-8 hours of sunlight is necessary for the optimal growth of basil plants. When the plant of basil reaches 6 to 8 inches in height, then start harvesting the leaves.
2: Chives.
Chives is also a very sun-loving herb. The plants of chives require constant watering for a good yield. Do not let the flower ripen, if it does, the flower spread the seeds and all your herb garden will be covered with chives plants. It is a perennial herb, so you don’t have to sow the seeds every growing season.
3: Cilantro/Coriander.
As I mentioned in the chart, cilantro is the leaf and coriander is the seed of the plant, both can be used in various dishes. You need to water the seedlings of cilantro on a regular basis.
Only seedlings need a little high moisture level, not the adult plant, so do not overwater when plants are fully established. Keep a distance of 6 inches between two plants, so each plant can produce healthy leaves.
4: Oregano.
Oregano can be grown from seeds, seedling or cuttings. Plants are very sun-loving. The plants of oregano can survive drought conditions and lower fertilize the soil, which makes them very hardy plants. Oregano is perfect for a beginner.
5: Parsley.
Parsley is a perfect herb for sauces, salads, and soups. The plants and seedlings of parsley need plenty of water for better growth. Do not overwater them. 6 to 8 hours of sunlight is great for parsley.
6: Peppermint.
Peppermint plants require full sunlight, high-level moisture, and good drainage of the soil. A single plant of peppermint can spread in each corner of your herb garden.
So it is best to grow peppermint in the container. If you want to grow in a raised bed or in-ground, you will need plastic edging to stop the roots of plants to spread in your whole kitchen garden.
7: Rosemary.
This one is also a perennial herb. In an area with full sunlight and a good level of humidity, rosemary plants can grow up to 4 feet in height and become shrub. Do not overwater the plants and give them enough space to grow and spread. Pruning is a good habit for this herb.
8: Sage.
You can grow sage in shade, but the tastiest leaves of sage are very sun-loving. So if you want tasty leaves, grow sage in full sunlight. A well-drained soil, little watering is good for sage plants.
9: Thyme.
Thyme is also a perennial herb. About 50 varieties of different flavors of thyme are available. Overwatering of thyme plants can be lethal because they are drought loving. This herb is also sun-loving. The plant can grow up to 6-12 inches tall. Thyme and rosemary are great companions.
Here are a few more herbs you can grow in your herb garden.
10: Anise
11: Aralia
12: Astralagus
13: Bay
14: Dill
15: Caraway
16: Chamomile
17: Chervil
18: Comfrey
19: Costmary
20: Fennel
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