Home & People PART I Growing herbs in containers

Press, 7 October 1980, Page 23

Home & People PART I Growing herbs in containers

By

CLARE SIMPSON

in Auckland

If you have only a tiny patch of ground, or even if you have a large one. it’s a good idea to grow some herbs in a box. tub. or group of pots. These can be both useful and ornamental when placed on a patio or terrace. It is important to remember that we humans are strange beings and tend to think of our own comfort first and foremost. On a wet or cold day we often do without things growing outside rather than brave the weather to get them. Thus, many meals that could have become dishes fit for a king by the inclusion of a snip or two of the right herb, remain dull and uninteresting. If a little forethought is exercised we can place

our plants right at hand and they will be used advantageously. A collection of culinary herbs should be kept as close to the kitchen door as possible.

Most people think of herbs just as part of the kitchen garden, though many are not used in culinary art at all. So it is a good idea to have, several containers, which when amalgamated would do justice to any herb garden. There is no need to have a lot of any one particular herb unless it holds special appeal. Consider'the idea of one container, or individual pots of herbs to be used in cooking.

Another could hold an assortment of unusual or interesting varieties with medicinal properties, to reproduce a mini-physic garden.

A third could be a fragrant delight with herbs grown for perfume. My own preference is to make a fourth container for scented geraniums. All herbs have a variety of uses and lend themselves admirably to container planting. Even though I have an outdoor garden I keep pots of my favourite herbs where I can enjoy them by the scent of* their aromatic leaves, or for my daily use.

Pots of sweet marjoram, origanum, thyme, burnet, tarragon, and coloured leafed sages have been given residence in a variety of old kitchenware that my family thought was fit only for the scrap heap. Among these are an old milk billy, two pre-historic copper saucepans that lost their handles long ago, other enamel saucepans and bowls and even a veteran pressure cooker that was on the property among piles of rubbish, when I bought it.

Two old kettles sit beside a butterchurn that borer had chosen as their home. A borer treatment soon stopped that little scheme, and gave me a

good deep container that comfortably gave parsley plenty of root room. When in season, basil, and chervil are added to the other herbs. As well as these outdoor containers. a set of indoor planters bought at a reduced sale price sit on the kitchen window sill.

A young lemon verbena, prostrate rosemary and winter savory are included in this group planting.

After I read of container crown lavender being placed near the front door to offer a fragrant welcome. I utilised a few old nail boxes and painted them white for this purpose. Not only do my visitors benefit but lavender is so lovely, the growing of it is reward in itself. Right

by the front door a strawberry jar filled with different scented geraniums adds to the already perfumed air.

My patio is so small it is really not entitled to be so-named. However, there is room for one large, and two smaller, fibrolite planters, plus a big plastic pot of lemon grass. This latter has to be protected when frosts threaten.

The large planter is saucer-shaped and designed to represent a herb garden in miniature. An idea that has worked out well is to half fill large containers with a mixture of sawdust and compost. Plants bought from nurseries are plunged still in their black plastic wrappings into this mix.

When the mini-landscap-ing is completed fill’in the gaps with good soil.