How to Grow an Herb Garden in Pots

Herbs are special plants that have desired tastes or smells. Some herbs also possess medicinal properties. Most of these plants we call herbs can be grown in pots as houseplants. There is nothing like having your own herb garden in your kitchen so that fresh herbs are ready at hand. Fortunately herbs are something that takes readily to growing in pots. You can even bring them indoors when the growing season ends thereby extending the growing season.

Herbs are also very easy to start from seed. You will want to use a large pot for this purpose. Pack the soil into the pot so that you eliminate and airspaces in the soil otherwise the seed you plant is apt to fall through the voids all the way to the bottom of the pot. Herb seeds should be soaked in water for about an hour before planting as they grow better. Plant the seeds so they are about three times the diameter of the seed below the surface of the ground. For extremely tiny seeds just press them into the surface of the soil.

After the herb plants have come up allow then to continue in your seed bed for two to three weeks. When you are ready to transplant the herbs, pinch off the first layer of leaves from the bottom of the plant. Carefully extract the plant from the seed bed without pulling on the stem or leaves. This step is usually accomplished by inverting the pot they were raised in, and removing the plant. An alternate method is to remove the plant using a spoon for a trowel. Plant the herb so that the potting soil comes up on the stem just above where the leaves were pinched off. When the plant establishes itself in its new pot these leaf scars will sprout a new set of roots.