I’m fortunate enough to have a deck and a deck planter that gets lots of sun, and herbs are ideal for it.
These pictures were was taken a couple of years ago. You can see a thriving dill plant, marigolds to repel squirrels, and some of those soft maple helicopter seeds I hadn’t yet removed in that small section of the deck planter. 😉 And you can see mint at the beginning of the growing season in the planter under the deck. I normally grow short carrots (with mixed success, as many come out a bit gnarly, shall we say), basil, oregano, tarragon, dill, parsley, and rosemary in my deck planter and mint in the container under the deck. This year my oregano and tarragon have already started coming back, and I’m starting the rest from seed, which is generally cheaper in the end than buying plants, particularly with plants you can harvest and save seeds from.
You also have much more control over what you grow when you buy seeds than when you buy plants. This year, on the recommendation of my friends at Serenity Acres, I bought mine from Seeds of Change, which is also where I got my seed potatoes. They’re organic and not genetically-modified. It’s important to me to keep diversity alive and to grow food for nutritional value and taste rather than its ability to travel long distances, and Seeds of Change is a company I’m happy to support with my dollars.
Herbs don’t require a lot of maintenance. Obviously the more weed-free your container is, the better. Most herbs don’t taste so good if you let them flower, so aggressively pluck off any flowers you see, particularly on dill, oregano, and basil. Basil becomes bushier and not so leggy if you pinch leaves off the tops of stems rather than lower on the stems, and it tends to like a lot of water. Most other herbs are happy with moderate amounts of water, and they all like sun. I don’t keep mint in my deck container, only in the one under the deck. That’s because mint should be in its own container, lest it take over any other space you might put it. It spreads as far as it can and seeds itself everywhere. Naughty mint! Anyway, just in the container under the deck, I have more mint than I know what to do with, really. That too is already starting to come back for the growing season.
With the possible exception of oregano which has a stronger flavor when dried, most of these herbs taste so much better when fresh and plucked right from the deck. Their scents are so much more pungent and complex, and the experience of growing and harvesting plants myself gives me a great sense of satisfaction. Before winter arrives, I plan to take some of these plants inside and harvest and dehydrate the rest in a food dehydrator.
If you don’t have much space, consider growing herbs in containers, whether it’s outside or inside. Even if you’re a master chef, I’d be willing to bet your cooking will improve right away.
