Growing Herbs in Pots this Year

My outdoor herb garden

I'm growing herbs in pots this year.

I think that having fresh herbs to season our meat will be a wonderful addition to our gluten-free meals.

A few months ago we bought a house.

Our plan was to put in a few raised-beds for fresh vegetables this month.

Unfortunately, we recently discovered that we have no water in the backyard. The faucet in the extended portion where we want to put the garden has only a drizzle of water coming out, and the faucet up next to the house has no water at all.

Apparently, someone capped off the water line coming out of the house, and we can't see where to fix it, so we're going to have to run a new water line from the side of the house out to the extended backyard.

We have a lot of trees on the property, so we need to put the raised beds quite a distance from the house. That way, the vegetables won't be in the shade all day.

A new water line is going to be expensive because we also have to put in a drip watering system for the raised beds, due to the water restrictions here in Fort Worth, Texas.

We can only run sprinklers for 2 days a week, which isn't enough water to grow vegetables.

In addition, we recently had to pay to have a dead, diseased tree removed from the side of the shed in the backyard. It started moving toward the shed and stopped at the roof line during a storm.

We didn't want the tree to break and crush in the house, so that's what we spent our savings on this year.

Taking that tree out.

It was expensive because the tree was too diseased to climb and considered a high-risk take-down.

We also need to put some gutters up on the house, due to all of the rain that we've had over the past year. That project has to come before putting in the new water line, so I've decided to grow herbs in pots this year instead of vegetables.

I have never grown herbs before, so this is going to be a first for me.

Herbs in Pots vs Container Garden

The first thing we had to do was decide whether to grow herbs in their own pots or group them together in a container garden arrangement.

I was thinking of a window box type of garden, but after looking at how small those containers were, we decided to put the herbs in their own pots, so they could grow nice and big.

This window box would have been too small
for an outdoor herb garden

Putting them in their own pots will also give us the option of being able to bring them into the house and place them under a grow light for the winter.

That way, we can have freshly cut herbs all year round.

A smaller container would also root-bound some of the herbs, and run the risk of the heartier ones taking over and killing off the others.

What Herbs to Grow in Pots

Once we knew what we wanted to do, we took a trip to our local Home Depot do-it-yourself store and looked to see what was available in our area. I had a list of potential herbs that I took with me, to make sure that we picked up the correct varieties that would grow well in zone 8a.

At Home Depot, we found:

• oregano
• basil
• parsley
• dill
• thyme
• sage

Herbs need a minimum pot size of 8-inches in diameter, so we picked up six 12-inch diameter pots, so the herbs would have plenty of room to grow and we wouldn't have to bother with transplanting them later on.

This is because most herbs grow to be 1 to 3 feet tall!

We also picked up two huge bags of Miracle Grow Planting Mix, so they would be well fed for the first few months.

We next stopped by Lowe's, just in case they had some different varieties of herbs, and we were in luck. Lowe's had:

• rosemary
• lemon balm

So we picked up a couple more pots from Lowe's. The only herbs on my list that we didn't find that day were:

• marjoram
• savory
• bay leaf

(Turns out bay leaf is actually a tree!)

Most of the herbs we found repel mosquitoes, so I decided to group them by the BBQ, in a spot that gets 3 to 5 hours of sun a day and shade in hotter afternoons.

Herbs in pots can tolerate temperatures of up to 90 degrees, but need shade from the hotter hours of the day during the summer months.

Putting them in the right place is essential.

We have them under a backyard tree, but in a spot where the sun peeks through during the morning hours, which is referred to as filtered light.

They are absolutely loving the spot we picked out.

Citronella in Our Growing Zone

I wasn't expecting to find a Citronella Mosquito plant (top left above) at Home Depot, so we picked it up without checking out the specifics on what it needs to grow. We have been thinking about planting a variety of mosquito-repelling bushes around the yard.

Unfortunately, it doesn't do well in our area once the weather begins to cool down, so we can't plant it in the ground like we wanted to. Instead, we went back to Home Depot and picked up another pot.

I'll have to bring it into the house when I bring in the other herbs.

Using Spanish Lavender Instead

I didn't realize that lavender was an herb. I knew that it was a deterrent for mosquito, so it was on our list to buy, but didn't realize that you can actually cook with it.

After what happened with the Citronella Mosquito plant, I did a bit of research before buying lavender, and discovered that French Lavender or Spanish Lavender can withstand the winter in zone 8a, so we dropped by a nursery to see if we could find the right perennial for our area.

They had one large Spanish Lavender plant and several smaller ones that were wilted and didn't look good, so we just picked up the one larger one.

Hubby planted it in the front yard yesterday, up next to the house. We'll be keeping our eye out for more.

Don't Over water the Herbs

Most of the sites I checked out warn about over watering your herbs. I have a nasty habit of that, so this warning caught my attention.

Most sources say to wait until the soil dries out about 2 inches down before giving the plant more water, but some herbs like basil like the soil moister than others.

This is another good reason to place the herbs in their own pot. This way I can control the water each herb gets. We tried to find a moisture reader, but neither Home Depot nor Lowe's had one in stock.

I need to pick one up from Amazon.

Good Experience Raising Herbs So Far

Overall, our experience with planting and raising herbs has been a good one. They are growing nicely, and have handled the last few storms quite well.

The latest frost on history for Fort Worth is mid April, so the growing season is a heck of a lot longer than it was for us in Utah.

We are really excited about that!

I'm even learning how to cut those herbs for cooking.

So how about you?

Are you growing Herbs?