Plants for Containers

First and foremost, we think it important to grow culinary herbs close to the kitchen. Far more practical in our hectic lives to have something we need at hand. And especially preferable on a cold, dark, winter’s night when traipsing out to the garden to collect a forgotten supper ingredient is not something anyone would want to do!  Many of our smaller growing, indispensable herbs can be grown in containers and some can be even grown in pots on the kitchen windowsill.  Try to give inside herbs as much light, air and pot space as you can. Other containers can be filled with flowering and scented herbs, Scented Pelargoniums or Salvias to be placed on the patio or decking, around a garden seat or either side of your front door. You will be rewarded with colour, fragrance, bees and butterflies and, also, in many cases, a long flowering season.  Salvias, for instance, will flower continuously in all their glorious colours until the first frosts of Autumn. The question we are most asked is ‘what compost should I use for containers?’  Once upon a time, we highly recommended using John Innes No 2 compost with its base of fertile, free draining loam and grit. This always produced strong, sturdy herbs with excellent flavour and scent. Sadly, this compost also contained peat which, for very good reasons, is now frowned upon. We have been trialling peat free composts for a very long time and, although our plants are now peat-free, we still haven’t come up with the perfect answer as different mixes suit different plants!  The golden rule is to buy compost which is as freshly made as possible and select a brand which has added loam if you can or add some of your own garden compost. This will help the compost to retain moisture and nutrients. You may find that containers will require more watering and feeding using a peat free compost but this is a small price to pay for saving our precious peat bogs.