Help me to grow some herbs please

jos28

I'm more black fingered than green fingered. Giving me a plant is giving it the kiss of death. I use a lot of herbs and would love to grow them properly. I use mainly basil, coriander and rosemary.
I usually buy the potted ones in the supermarket, put them on the kitchen window sill and try not to kill them. They generally only last a few weeks - the coriander gets some sort of greenfly - I forget to water or over water the others
and replace them after a few weeks.
Is there anyway I could grow these together outside in a large pot/window box ???
Advice much appreciated, cheers.

phormium

Rosemary will grow outside all year round, the other two are more delicate and I don't like either of them so haven't grown them I'm sure someone else will advise on them.

I have a massive rosemary plant though and it's years old at this stage, gets a bit woody in the middle after a while and I just recently did a major prune but it still stays at a size that has enough rosemary to do the whole neighbourhood if I so wished!

Seamai

Coriander bolts after a few weeks so you need to keep planting seeds to insure a steady supply. Also, don't be put off by the seeds taking longer than others to germinate.

looksee

We grew basil outside this year (you can't plant either basil or coriander at this time of year) and the flavour is amazing. It has only made small sturdy plants rather than the big leafy bush that you buy from the supermarket but the flavour is infinitely better. It will only last until the weather gets cold then will have to be sown again next year. The coriander was grown and allowed to go to seed as the gardener wanted seed rather than green, its a bit sparse but has grown and flowered ok and the seeds are hopefully ripening.

The supermarket plants are ok but they do not last more than about a couple of weeks as you have found.

CelticRambler

"Herbs" is a massive category of plants, and they all have their peculiar requirements, so while you can almost always grow everything you want in a pot or patch of ground outside, you need to know which ones thrive on neglect and which need constant attention. Thyme and rosemary, for example generally don't want to be watered - they grow wild on the rocky uplands of Provence (worth tramping through some time, just for the scent ...) ; whereas parsely loves a good shady bog. Many herbs have sayings that guide you in how to manage them, e.g. my MiL's favourite "Basil hates going to bed with its feet wet" - if you can find them, they're a great help. And, of course, there are often numerous varieties of a single plant (my local supermarket, for example, has at least five different types of basil in the seed section) so what you buy in a pot might not be suitable for outdoors, or what you grow might not match what you imagined the plant to look - or taste - like.

If you don't have much time or space to devote to gardening, growing herbs (successfully!) gives a great reward for the effort you put in.

jos28

Thanks a million for all the replies folks, I don't feel like such a plant murderer now. The ones I love to use most (basil and coriander) are obviously tricky to maintain. I'll have to wait til next year to have a go at growing those outside ?? I love the idea of those sayings, I'll definitely google those. "Basil hates going to bed with its feet wet"

kathrinalewis

jos28 wrote: »

I'm more black fingered than green fingered. Giving me a plant is giving it the kiss of death. I use a lot of herbs and would love to grow them properly. I use mainly basil, coriander and rosemary.
I usually buy the potted ones in the supermarket, put them on the kitchen window sill and try not to kill them. They generally only last a few weeks - the coriander gets some sort of greenfly - I forget to water or over water the others
and replace them after a few weeks.
Is there anyway I could grow these together outside in a large pot/window box ???
Advice much appreciated, cheers.

I think its better f you use a polytunnel to keep your plants safe

jos28

kathrinalewis wrote: »

I think its better f you use a polytunnel to keep your plants safe

It would have to be a tiny one, I have a weenchy garden

MacDanger

If you're using the supermarket plants, the first thing you need to do when you buy them is repot the plant into something 3-4 times the size of the original pot. You'll get at least double the life out of them by doing that in my experience

hirondelle

jos28 wrote: »

It would have to be a tiny one, I have a weenchy garden

The shop bought basil and coriander work well on a sunny window sill- the trick (for me) is to repot them in a slightly larger pot when you get them home- they seem to settle in better and are easier to keep watered properly.

I water them a small amount every day- otherwise they get knocked back in my experience.

jos28

MacDanger wrote: »

If you're using the supermarket plants, the first thing you need to do when you buy them is repot the plant into something 3-4 times the size of the original pot. You'll get at least double the life out of them by doing that in my experience

hirondelle wrote: »

The shop bought basil and coriander work well on a sunny window sill- the trick (for me) is to repot them in a slightly larger pot when you get them home- they seem to settle in better and are easier to keep watered properly.

I water them a small amount every day- otherwise they get knocked back in my experience.

Thanks folks, I'll repot the ones I have and hope they last a bit longer. Cheers

pwurple

For both basil and coriander from the supermarket, you can do more than repot them, split them too, as they are basically pots of seedlings! I divide each of those little 9cm pots into 6 or 8 pieces, and pot each of those divisions into it's own 2 lt pot. They typically last about 8 months growing in the new pots, making enough for homemade pesto etc.