Hanging baskets, pots, edges, all the little unused spaces. It is a little bit ironic that the beds I harvest most often are the smallest ones. I have oregano and thyme doing really well just around the other side of the garage, in the north wall garden, and masses of parsley and coriander and basil in the main front yard beds, but it is the oregano and lemon thyme, parsley and coriander and basil in the hanging baskets at the front door that get used most often. Lemon balm (melissa) and Vietnamese mint thrive as a ground cover on the shady south side of the house, but it is the lemon balm and Vietnamese mint in pots lining the path edge that get picked.
I have almost all my perennial herbs in pots and hanging baskets now, freeing up lots of bed space for the more space-hungry annuals like cabbages and broad beans. The pots are filled with a mixture of chook made compost mixed with cracker dust. The cracker dust helps drainage and adds minerals, and the compost holds moisture and provides macronutrients. With only a small reservoir of nutrients and no ability to go foraging deep for their own, they need more fertilizing than the main beds. They get a cup of diluted seaweed brew or worm leachate every week or two and a handful of worm castings every few months.
They are situated to get shade from the early afternoon sun to help stop them drying out too much, but they still need watering more frequently than the main beds – I water them along with the seedlings in the nursery. In scorching weather I might have to take them down and give them a holiday in the shade – one of the advantages of pots and hanging baskets is that they are easy enough to move. But with that little bit of pampering, they thrive. I probably have only a few square metres altogether in pots and hanging baskets, but they yield an enormous amount.
Linda your skill at maximising all the free stuff – CO2, sunlight, gaseous nitrogen, water, soil microbes, – to name a few….and converting it to delicous food – is of an Olympic standard. Congratulations. I just love your posts.
Can you please explain what cracker dust is?
Robert
Hi Robert, thank you! Cracker dust is the very fine blue metal gravel, like coarse dark grey sand, that is often used for under pavers or bedding in pipes. You get it from landscape suppliers – I pay $2 for a 20 litre bucket full – or look out for big piles of it where they are doing works. It’s nice because it has all those volcanic minerals in it, but in the shorter term it’s just for drainage, and you can use any coarse sand.