If you love fresh herbs but hate hiking through the rain to gather them from the garden, youll find that planting herbs in containers by a doorway keeps them just seconds away from the kitchen.
Generally south and west doorways are best for Mediterranean herbs such as tarragon, sage, rosemary and thyme. These sunlovers all need good drainage, can handle summer heat and will co-exist happily together in one large container.
French tarragon is the totally delicious variety thats most in demand for recipes. Its cold-hardy in southwest B.C. but needs winter shelter because it dies in wet conditions. French tarragon doesnt produce seed.
Then theres Russian tarragon which is often grown by accident because its available from seed, is an easy grower and prairie hardy. After someones tasted it, they usually clue in why its not exactly popular.
Hardy Arp is the rosemary that may survive the winter in a sheltered spot. But if its planted in a container, its still safer to bring it inside.
All these herbs get leggy and usually grow best when kept picked. In late summer, their flavours are at their peak and this is a good time to dry pickings for winter.
Oregano, parsley and chives thrive in containers and can be combined in one pot if its a large one. All these do well in sunnier spots but can also handle part shade.
In north-facing doorways, parsley and mint do fairly well. But combining these in one pot doesnt work well because mint is super-invasive.
Mint tends to send runners out through drainage holes and if soil is not available, it tries to root in paver cracks or the drainage holes of neighbouring pots.
Mint can handle north walls and is hardy in southern B.C., but has a strong need to roam into fresh soil while dying out in the original place. If the old roots arent removed, they make a dense, woody network thats very hard to dig up.
But mint in a pot can stay well-behaved if you provide fresh soil every spring by cutting out and discarding one or two pie-shaped wedges out of last years growth and filling the gap(s) with fresh compost.
Dont put any mint roots in your compost box. Theyll spread. Green waste operations handle mint roots far better than home composts can.
It doesnt take long for a mint planting to morph into a lush bush of fresh green leaves. All you need to do is keep pinching it back. Every stem tip you remove stimulates the two dormant buds just below on the stem. These buds go on to make two stem tips. Pinch those and you end up with four.
amarrison@shaw.ca
