Container gardening herbs means growing a kitchen herb garden in pots by the door, where you can snip fresh herbs into the cooking. The key is matching each herb to the right conditions: thirsty herbs like basil and parsley want rich, moist soil, while Mediterranean herbs like rosemary and thyme want gritty, dry soil and full sun. Group each type with its own kind, give them bright light, harvest often, and bring the tender ones indoors for winter.
A row of herb pots has lived by my kitchen door for as long as I have cooked properly, since there is nothing like stepping out to snip basil or rosemary straight into a pan. Herbs are the most useful thing you can grow in a pot, and among the easiest, once you understand that they fall into two camps with opposite needs. Get the thirsty ones and the dry ones into the right soil, and a handful of pots supplies the kitchen all season.
Why herbs are the best container plants
Herbs earn their place in pots more than almost any other plant, because they are useful every single day. A few pots by the kitchen door mean fresh herbs whenever you cook, snipped at their best rather than wilting in a shop bag. The convenience alone justifies the small space and effort they take.
Most herbs are also naturally suited to pot life. Many stay compact, their roots cope with confinement, and several of the most useful ones come from dry, poor ground where a free-draining pot suits them perfectly. You do not need rich soil or much room to grow a productive herb collection, which makes herbs ideal for a balcony, windowsill, or doorstep.
A pot keeps a herb close and controlled. Mint, which would swamp a border, stays contained in a pot. A tender basil can move indoors when frost threatens. A rosemary can shift to the sunniest spot. The control a container gives suits herbs especially well, letting you grow plants together that would never share open ground.
The two camps of herbs
The single most useful thing to understand about growing herbs in pots is that they divide into two groups with opposite needs. Mix the two and one group is always in the wrong conditions. Sort them into their two camps, give each what it wants, and they all thrive.
The first camp is the moisture-loving herbs, the lush, leafy ones that want rich, damp soil and regular feeding. Basil, parsley, chives, coriander, dill, and mint all belong here. They grow fast and soft, they wilt if they dry out, and they want a fertile, water-holding compost kept evenly moist. These are the herbs you water often and feed regularly.
The second camp is the Mediterranean herbs, the woody, aromatic ones from dry, sunny hillsides. Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, and lavender belong here. They want gritty, free-draining soil that dries between waterings, full sun, and very little feeding. Rich, wet soil rots them. They are the herbs you treat almost like succulents, keeping them lean and dry. Group each camp together in its own pot and conditions, and never expect basil and rosemary to share.
Soil and pots for each type
Match the soil to the camp. For the thirsty, leafy herbs, use a rich, water-holding potting compost, perhaps with a little garden compost mixed in for fertility. Keep it evenly moist and feed it regularly through the season, since these fast-growing herbs are hungry and want steady moisture and nutrients to keep producing soft, tender leaves.
For the Mediterranean herbs, use a gritty, fast-draining mix. Blend a third coarse grit, perlite, or sand into ordinary potting compost so the water drains straight through and the soil dries between waterings. These herbs want lean, dry conditions, so do not feed them much, and let the pot approach dryness before watering again. Rich, soggy soil is the quickest way to kill a rosemary or a thyme.
Pot size suits the herb. Most herbs grow happily in a pot of a few litres, and several leafy herbs share a trough. Mint, though, must go in its own pot, since it spreads aggressively by runners and swamps anything it shares with. Give each herb a container with drainage holes, and for the Mediterranean herbs especially, make sure that drainage is excellent.
Herb picks by pot size
| Herb | Camp | Pot size | Soil mix | Light | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basil (Ocimum basilicum) | Thirsty | 6-8 in / 15-20 cm, 1-2 gal / 4-8 L | Rich, moist, peat-free compost with compost added | Full sun, 6+ hours | Annual, dies at frost |
| Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) | Thirsty | 6-8 in / 15-20 cm, 1-2 gal / 4-8 L | Rich, moist, with compost | Full sun to part shade | Biennial, often grown as annual |
| Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) | Thirsty | 6-8 in / 15-20 cm, 1-2 gal / 4-8 L | Rich, moist | Full sun to part shade | Perennial, USDA zones 3-9 |
| Mint (Mentha sp.) | Thirsty | 8-12 in / 20-30 cm, 2-3 gal / 8-11 L, own pot | Rich, moist, water-retaining | Part shade to full sun | Perennial, USDA zones 4-9, very vigorous |
| Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) | Thirsty | 6-8 in / 15-20 cm | Rich, moist, well-drained | Full sun, afternoon shade in heat | Annual, bolts in heat |
| Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) | Mediterranean | 10-14 in / 25-35 cm, 3-5 gal / 11-19 L | 2 parts compost to 1 part grit | Full sun, 6+ hours | Tender perennial, USDA zones 7-10, borderline in cold zones |
| Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) | Mediterranean | 6-10 in / 15-25 cm | 2 parts compost to 1 part grit | Full sun, 6+ hours | Hardy perennial, USDA zones 5-9 |
| Sage (Salvia officinalis) | Mediterranean | 8-12 in / 20-30 cm, 2-3 gal / 8-11 L | 2 parts compost to 1 part grit | Full sun, 6+ hours | Hardy perennial, USDA zones 4-8 |
| Oregano (Origanum vulgare) | Mediterranean | 8-10 in / 20-25 cm | 2 parts compost to 1 part grit | Full sun, 6+ hours | Hardy perennial, USDA zones 4-9 |
Light and position
Herbs want sun, and most want plenty of it. At least 6 hours of direct sun a day builds the aromatic oils that give herbs their flavour, so a herb grown in shade is not just leggy but bland. Site the herb pots in the brightest spot you have, ideally near the kitchen door so they are handy to pick.
The Mediterranean herbs are the real sun lovers. Rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender all crave full sun and crisp, dry conditions, and they grow weak and flavourless in shade. Give them the sunniest, hottest, best-drained position on the patio or windowsill, where they bake happily as they would on their native hillsides. The aromatic oil content in thyme and oregano can drop by 30 to 50 percent when plants are grown in shade compared with full sun, which is a lot of flavour to lose (Penn State Extension).
The leafy herbs tolerate a little more shade. Parsley, mint, chives, and coriander manage in four to six hours of sun and even prefer some afternoon shade in summer heat, which stops the likes of coriander bolting straight to seed. So a slightly shadier spot that would ruin a rosemary still grows a fine pot of parsley and mint.
When I started growing herbs, I planted a big handsome trough with one of everything, basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, and mint all together, picturing a single pot that supplied the whole kitchen. Within a month it was a mess. The basil and parsley wilted whenever I let the soil dry for the rosemary, and the rosemary and thyme yellowed and rotted whenever I watered enough for the basil. The mint, meanwhile, ran riot and tried to strangle everything else. The trough wanted to be watered two opposite ways at once, which is impossible. Now I keep two troughs, one of thirsty leafy herbs in rich moist soil, one of Mediterranean herbs in gritty dry soil, with mint banished to its own pot. Everything thrives, because everything finally gets what it wants.
Harvesting to keep herbs productive
Herbs reward regular harvesting, since picking keeps them bushy and productive rather than leggy and gone to seed. The more you pick most herbs, the more they produce, so do not be shy. A herb left unpicked grows tall, flowers, sets seed, and stops producing the tender leaves you want.
Pick leafy herbs by pinching out the growing tips, which encourages the plant to branch and bush out from below. Take basil from the top, snipping above a pair of leaves so two new shoots grow from the cut. Keep cutting chives and parsley from the outside, and they regrow from the centre. Regular picking keeps these herbs compact and cropping for months.
The woody Mediterranean herbs are picked by snipping sprigs as needed, which lightly prunes the plant and keeps it neat. Do not cut back into the old, bare wood of rosemary, sage, or thyme, since it often will not resprout from there. Take the soft, leafy growth, give the plants a light trim after flowering to keep them shapely, and they crop for years.
Overwintering herbs
What happens to herbs in winter depends on whether they are tender or hardy. The tender herbs, chiefly basil, are annuals that die at the first frost. Use them up before the cold arrives, or bring a pot indoors to a bright windowsill to eke out a few more weeks of picking. Coriander and dill are also short-lived and best resown rather than overwintered.
The hardy herbs survive winter in a pot outdoors, with a little protection in a cold climate. Thyme, sage, oregano, mint, and chives all come through frost and snow in a pot, dying back and returning in spring, or staying evergreen in the case of thyme and sage. Group their pots in a sheltered spot and they need little more than to be kept from sitting waterlogged. A pot of mint left outdoors will die back to the roots in a cold zone and resprout in spring, since the root is hardy to about -20 degrees F / -29 degrees C even though the top dies down.
Rosemary is the one to watch in a cold zone. Although woody and evergreen, it is only borderline hardy, and a hard winter in an exposed pot can kill it. In a cold climate, move the rosemary pot to a sheltered spot against a wall, or bring it into a cool, bright room at 40 to 50 degrees F / 4 to 10 degrees C for winter and return it outdoors in spring. With that care, a single rosemary lasts for years, the backbone of a pot herb garden that supplies the kitchen season after season.