Easy Container Herb Garden with Strawberries & Tomatoes
Plant an Easy Container Herb Garden on your deck or patio in a few hours and on a budget. Features best herbs for containers plus vegetables & fruit.
The month of May has the tendency to get the best of me. There are so many things that need done outside and that makes it tough to keep up with what needs done inside. To me, it feels like I take on another full-time job. Anyway, occasionally amidst all the work, I find time to fit in an afternoon of pure pleasure. I recently had one of those afternoons when I planted my easy container herb garden.
Easy Container Herb Garden Ideas
Like always, this herb garden is nothing fancy. Some vintage galvanized containers along with a couple of new buckets that I hope will age over the next few months. This year I stuck with the herbs I use most: basil, mint and rosemary. I’m already picking the mint for infused water and my favorite mint lemonade.
Even though I don’t have much luck with tomatoes because I have limited sun, I planted a couple of husky cherry tomato plants. I don’t need a huge harvest, just enough to make a few batches of caprese salad. They were very tiny when I bought them and they’ve actually doubled in size already. I’m definitely encouraged!
Author’s note: I know that technically my tomato cages are upside down. I prefer to bury the big circle in the dirt when I’m using a pot. They work great that way and I don’t have a top-heavy cage sitting on my pots.
Click to see last year’s herb garden!
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Every year I try to plant at least one new thing. Last year it was cucumbers but that didn’t work out so well. The vines were uncontrollable and I got just a few cucumbers. I thought because I chose a “container cucumber” that I wouldn’t need a net or trellis, but I really did need one. Anyway, this year I’m trying my hand at strawberries. I did some research and decided not to invest in a strawberry jar…at least not the first time. If I have success, I may branch out next year. I just put them in galvanized buckets and purchased these strawberry supports to keep the fruit off the soil.
My old step stool is hanging in there and getting rustier by the year. I had some leftover asparagus fern, ivy and stream alyssum so I combined them in an old bucket to set on the stool.
From start to finish, putting this easy container herb garden together took just a few hours. I refreshed the potting soil in my existing containers but used all new soil in the olive buckets. I lined them first with this landscape fabric so the dirt wouldn’t escape the slits. To save on potting soil and hold the landscape fabric in place, I added an upside-down pot.
After the soil was in, I trimmed the fabric to just below the rim of the olive bucket. The buckets have excellent drainage but no dirt escapes which makes it so much easier to keep the deck clean.
If you’ve never planted an herb garden before, I hope you at least try your hand at one or two herbs. Basil and mint are basically care-free…all you have to do is set them in the sun and water them. Here are some of my favorite ways to use basil:
- Chop and add to canned spaghetti sauce. Gives the sauce a fresh taste.
- Make Caprese Salad. (Recipe coming soon.)
- Chop and add to marinades. (Our favorite grilled chicken recipe.)
- Freeze to use in soups & stews.
- Cut and use in garden flower arrangements.
Related:
- All About Basil: How to Grow, Propagate, Chop & Freeze
- 10 Ways to Use Rosemary
- 9 Reasons to Grow Mint
Here are my favorite ways to use mint:
- Cut and use in infused water or lemonade.
- Garnish fruit cups or desserts.
- Use in garden flower arrangements.
- Make Watermelon & Mint Salad with Feta Cheese.
Best wishes for a wonderful Memorial Day…and my heartfelt thanks to all military men & women and their families. They sacrifice so much for our freedom…and I’m personally very grateful.
See you soon!
