Herb Garden

This weekend I refreshed my back porch herb garden. My rosemary and sage survived the winter, but almost everything else perished in the cold or drowned in the rain. Last year I used green earth boxes as planters, but they didn't drain well and aren't very pretty, so this year I am using terracotta pots - I like the eclectic look of the different sizes.

I've planted 3 kinds of mint since I used so much of it last year. It is great in fruit salad and summer drinks. They had a good selection so I decided to try a few kinds: pineapple mint, peppermint, and Moroccan mint. Mint is very hardy and grows like a weed so it will probably overgrow these pots, but at least it's separated from the other herbs.


I planted 2 kinds of thyme since it is so good in brunch hash browns and Italian food: green lemon thyme and silver thyme.


I also planted hot and spicy Oregano, and 2 kinds of basil (it's still a bit early in the season to get good basil plants): Red Rubin basil and Genovese basil.


I've found that the name tags that come with the plants when you buy them at the garden center are great for figuring out the sun and planting conditions and the plant's latin name, but not so nice to look at. Last year I got some ceramic herb stakes off of Etsy from Pigeon Toe Ceramics. They sell them in groups of four and you can choose from Lavender, Cilantro, Parsley, Catnip, Rosemary, Sage, Oregano, Thyme, Dill and Basil. Too bad they don't have Mint!

My favorite garden centers in the SF Bay Area are: Flowercraft Garden Center in San Francisco, Summerwinds Nursery in Palo Alto, East Bay Nursery in Berkeley, and Lowes/Home Depot (good prices here).

Good resources for gardening are the Sunset Western Garden Book (which is pretty specific to the western states), although you can also look up information about plants on their Garden Website. Martha Stewart seems to have a pretty good gardening site which is more geographically generic.

I'm going to give the garden a week or two to get established before harvesting anything, but I'm already looking forward to making pineapple mint mojitos!