A Time To Plant

 

Ecclesiastes 3:2 - A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

It’s the “time to pluck up” that I am excited about with this little project.

I planted an herb container garden last weekend.  My mom had a Lowe’s buy one, get one free coupon for herbs.  She kindly let me use it since she (master gardener extraordinaire) already had her kitchen garden planted.

I bought the following:

I also bought a pack of Dill seeds to start in the garden.  I already had some chives growing.  My mom continued her thoughtfulness by splitting some mint, oregano, and rosemary with me that she had planted at her house.

Now, if you are like me and know very little about gardening, here is a helpful tip.  Mom and Judd informed me that mint and oregano should be planted in separate containers because they spread and take over other plants.  I planted the mint and oregano in the smaller containers to the side. I also planted the rosemary in a separate pot because my larger container did not have room for it.

    

I didn’t really like the plastic garden stake labels that came with my plants.  Instead, I replaced them with what you see below.  I bought some craft sticks from Hobby Lobby and labeled the plants myself using a sharpie fine point marker.

     

I made a mistake on one craft stick.  Judd turned it upside down and drew an Easter bunny on the other end for me.  I put this stake in a container, on our front porch, that holds impatiens and sweet potato vine. (Per the usual, pardon the bad photo quality.  These are all from an iphone.)

Cole helped while I planted and labeled the herbs.  He also drank from the hose while I watered them.

Here is how the container looked when I was finished, aside from the fact that I photographed this before I took the plastic labels out – oops.  I can’t wait for the dill seeds to come up and for the other plants to thrive.  I hope the plants will fill in the whole container. 

I chose variegated thyme because the green and white color variation looked pretty with the other all green plants.  The thyme was planted towards the front of the container because, according to mom and Judd, it will creep over the side and will look pretty.

I planted the tomato in the back so that as it grows tall I can easily support it with a stake.  The other plants were placed according the height I expect them grow--from back to front, tallest to shortest.

Here is another thing to note if you are also going to plant an herb container garden.  I found the cilantro and flat leaf parsley difficult to tell apart.  So, I made sure to plant my flat leaf and curly leaf parsley together and then on the opposite side of the container I planted the cilantro.  Additionally, I thought the symmetry of the flat leaf parsley and cilantro flanking either side of the thyme looked nice.

  

Mom reminded me, so I will remind you, to water the herbs everyday because they will require more water since they are in a container and not planted in the ground.

Do you have an herb garden or plans to create an herb garden?  What did you plant?  Do you have any tips on how to make this garden grow?

Happy Gardening.