Last Year's Herb Garden

our container garden in the middle of summer, it actually doubled in size from this by the end of August

It may be the winter blues striking, this place is way too grey year round anyway, but I am getting excited to have a container herb garden again. Last year I did a small one but it ended up growing out of control and was so easy to take care of that I'm going to work with more herbs(in terms of quantity of each plant) so I can get more out of it.

By the end of the summer my herbs where almost 4 times their original size and all of the kitchen herbs - at least half of what was planted - were amazing in meals. 

We're planning on giving more berries a try too, all of which were planted and winterized early October. And by winterized I mean we took the advice of Amish friends and through hay on top of them. The raspberries are already good to go and produced 20 pounds of berries for us, not including the hefty amount I was able to give away, and our small strawberry plant did very well by the end of summer. The strawberries were just as easy to take care of and the raspberries were already well established so I didn't have to do anything but freeze those. Also behold our amazing blueberry harvest! The blueberry was a small plant but he was a late bloomer so we didn't get a lot off of him, this year should be better for him though. 

Since I didn't think to start this blog last summer when I could have done more with it in regards to the herb garden I'll be sharing what I've learned and all the new things I'm sure to come across this coming spring and summer. A quick recap of the plants are:

Basil, Catnip, Chamomile, Chives, Cilantro, Citronella, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Peppermint, Rosemary, Sage, Strawberry, and Thyme 

Chamomile and Lemon Grass did the worst, if you plan on trying those the best I can say is do Lemon Grass in its own planter and maybe plant Chamomile with other flowers - I did the opposite so this is what I'm going to try this year with them in hopes they do better. 

Basil by far did the best and needed the least care - it actually did so well that it more than doubled its size in the course of a few days. We were visiting family and came home to find it over taking the kitchen planter so we moved it to its own planter where it continued to grow like a monster. I ended up letting it get too big too quickly but it became the easiest to dry out for an herbal swag. It also was the only one that dried well enough for said swag so I opted not to finish putting one together because I failed so badly at it. I'll be trying it this year though, just in case I suddenly don't suck at decorating with herbs(herbs make awesome fresh arrangements for centerpieces and gifts by the by). 

Then there are those herbal mosquito repellent planters - those work and they are amazing!! They actually work so well that I'm aiming to set up at least 4 this year if I can. Last year I put 2 together, one which had Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena and Catnip(which I totally grew for the neighbor's cats who protect our yard so valiantly) and the other had Citronella, Lavender and Lemon Balm. There are more options you can use but I with with these more so as a trial of it and will probably add more of a selection for a more pleasing looking set up in the planters. Beware though that Citronella also does very well with little care and it ended up affecting how well the Lavender and Lemon Balm didn't do; both grew but remained rather small due to lack of space the Citronella allowed them.

We're looking at galvanized tubs to plant in this year, but those can get pricey so here's to finding cheaper and better planter solutions!

This was taken in September, fall was starting and the Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena and Chives were the only plants to start to dry out before October.