It’s not ideal. Not smart either but what’s a girl to do when the musclemen are due on Tuesday. I doubt that they’ll give a hoe-hoe-hoe of a thought about my tender little herbs. It’s the only place I can find where they won’t drop soggy teabags or empty dregs out their mugs. Goodness know, and I really don’t want to know, where they empty themselves when I’m not home. No, really, I don’t want to know.
So here’s a snapshot of what I’ve managed to salvage before they arrive. I still need some saucer thingies to go under the pots so water draining through doesn’t stain the wood decking.
What herbs are you planting, or do you buy them at the supermarket when you need them?
The Chalk Hills Kitchen 
Misky, what a beautiful potted collection! I don’t want to know where the workmen pee either! 😉
We’re growing rampant oregano and rosemary – the thyme is looking a bit tragic at the moment. In the beds we have self-sown Italian rosemary, coriander and sage! x
Hi Celia! Those pots are quite old now. One is actually held together with superglue after Peder dropped it. Rosemary and sage are no problem to grow here, parsley struggles to start from seed so I usually buy a small plant and talk nicely to it until it settles, and chives seem to survive everything including drought. I’ll have to watch the parsley though as it often bolts and goes to seed. I’m already freezing herbs, too, which seems early to me. Do you freeze yours for use later?
You should direct them to the compost heap, good source of nitrogen etc 🙂 🙂
Apparently it keeps the foxes away too.. 🙂
Misky, not any more – the herbs seem to grow prolifically, so we just use whatever we have in the garden at any given time. I forgot to mention that we have basil almost year round (it’s a week of winter and there’s still some in the yard!) and lots of spearmint! x
I do hope they survive and that the whole experience isn’t too traumatic for you! I’m sure the garden will look lovely when they finish. I have a mix of home grown and supermarket herbs – I find rosemary and thyme are easy enough to grow but I often end up having to buy coriander and basil. I tried growing the latter outside but every plant was eaten by some mysterious pest. I’m clearly not the only one that likes it! I’m having another go this year but leaving them in the safety of my kitchen windowsill. Hopefully I’ll have more luck this year…
Hi! I chopped down my rosemary last year because it was humungous. Probably 10-years old, and I feared it might swallow up small children if let to grow larger. It’s been replaced by a smaller bush that I keep trimmed within an inch of being a bonsai. As for basil, I can’t grow it outside either. I think it’s too cold in SE England. I keep a well-used plant on my windowsill during the summer, and then buy it loose during the winter. Now if the rain would just stop, my muscle-boys could start work. 🙂
I had a sage that did that – it bullied pretty much every other herb in the bed. As we didn’t use much sage we eventually palmed it off on our neighbour who have sensibly confined it to a pot to prevent its plans for world domination! Fingers crossed for dry weather.
I can’t decide what’s a nicer sight – the plants or the pots. We grow basil every year, and I like to have coriander until it gets too hot. For some reason, parsley always pops up in unexpected spots in our garden. Anyway, I’m glad your herbs have found safe haven from goodness knows what!
It’s chucking down rain, so the ‘boys’ didn’t start work today. The good news is that I don’t need to water the herb pots! 🙂
I like your pots and I’m sure your herbs will do fine, even if they are facing the north. My mom does herb pots on our deck and sometimes it can be very useful to be able to move your plants around, especially in the case of bad weather.
Hi Fleur, and welcome! Moving the pots around is certainly one benefit for a herb garden, that’s true. The disadvantage is that the pots dry out so quickly on a hot day, so there are good and bad points about pots, I guess.
I quite love the look of your herb collection! The blue pots are so pretty, Misky:) I grow herbs and then be darned if I don’t forget to clip and use them, lol. I just don’t seem to have a green thumb in the herb department! xx
Hi Barbara! I remember to use mine, but often they’ll bolt before I need them for something specific. The dill flowers always mature much earlier than the pickling cucumbers as an example, so I usually have to reseed those. Basil won’t grow outside for me – too cold, I think, so I grow it inside on the windowsill. But my chives have gone completely nuts this spring; they’re growing like crazy and already setting flowers. Gosh.
I recently did a post on my plan for my herb garden.
🙂 Mandy
Yes, I just popped over to your blog to refresh my memory. I’ve been waiting for a photo of your little plants all potted up! Have you manage it yet? 😀
i have sown some dill and split my old tarragon and have new ones, bits of overwintered parsley, sage, lots of mints in pots, greek oregano and marjoram everywhere, fennel seedlings everywhere too. Wish we lived nearer and I could give you some of the seedlings. They are a shocking price to buy in pots aren’t they? Love the blue pots though, such a soothing colour 🙂
love the colour of your pots Misky, such a bright and vibrant blue!
I grow parsley, mint, dill, chives, basil, thyme and oregano. 🙂