How to Plant an Easy Outdoor Potted Herb Garden and Tips for Planting and Taming Invasive Mint! Healthy and Delicious!
I’m so excited to share my latest gardening adventure with you! Do you love fresh herbs and gardening? So do I! So every summer I plant an outdoor herb garden in a big pot and keep it on our deck by our kitchen patio doors. A potted container of fresh herbs is a handy and quick way to add snippets for our salads and summer drinks!
Let me show you how to plant one up and some tips and tricks I’ve learned through the years to make it grow quickly…and a clever tip on planting and taming mint, which is so invasive!
Planting an outdoor herb garden container is such a healthy and delicious way to garden for the summer! Get the kids involved too! My boys have always loved to help plant up our summer herb container and watch the plants grow.
We love to add dill, lemon thyme and chives to our meat. Salads taste so much more flavorful with dill, parsley chives and lemon thyme too!
We love to add mojito mint to our summer ice tea and lemonade drinks …and of course it’s delicious with Mojitos!
Herbs:
- Mojito Mint (this is a new type of mint I found this summer – it’s delicious!)
- Lemon Thyme (this species of thyme has a yummy lemony flavour)
- Rosemary
- Sweet Basil
- Chives
- Dill
- Flat Italian Parsley
Herb Garden Planting Tips:
- Add potting soil to a large outdoor pot, leaving a 2 inch space from top of soil to top of pot.
2. Water all herbs.
3. Take first potted herb and squeeze around middle and bottom of the plastic pot to loosen roots from the pot. This will let the herb slide out of the pot easily.
4. Gently pull apart roots at the bottom and at sides. This will activate new root growth and will get rid of bound roots. Loosening the roots will allow the herbs to grow quickly!
5. Dig a hole in soil, in the middle of the pot, to the size of the herb root mass.
6. Plant herb and lightly pack soil around it and tamp down the top of the soil around the stem.
7. Plant remaining herbs in the same way, planting remaining herbs around the middle one.
8. Best Tip for Planting and Taming invasive Mint!: Mint is super super invasive! If you don’t contain the roots they will take over the entire pot and you’ll end up with an entire container of mint! This is the best trick I have found that really works:
Heather Luckhurst is the publisher and owner of the Design and Lifestyle website 
Your pot of herbs looks gorgeous! But I’m a little worried about the Dusty Miller being planted amongst the herbs as, according to horticultural notes published by Washington State University Clark County Extension, “All parts of the (Dusty Miller) plant are poisonous if ingested” (http://pnwplants.wsu.edu/PlantDisplay.aspx?PlantID=270). Take care.
Eeek!! Really?? I had no idea!! I’ll be removing those immediately – thanks for sharing that info!
This year I painted four clay pots (peach, mint green, baby blue & mellow yellow), then stenciled them with a bird on a branch in black board paint. With chalk I wrote the name of the herb. I planted cilantro, oregano, basil & mint. I have received complements from everyone who has seen them! In another pot I planted pineapple sage for summer drinks. It smells as good as it tastes. In a small garden I separately planted spearmint and Lily of The Valley. Love fresh herbs!
The containing the mint in a can is a great idea! My poor mint is in a small pot all on its own, cause it wont play nice with his herb friends!
I’ve been really wanting to do this! Thanks so much for sharing Heather. 🙂
Nancy
You’re welcome Nancy!!
Gorgeous! I love having fresh herbs close at hand, and they’re so pretty too!
Loved this post! I bought a small herb planter this year but I’m looking forward to starting a new one next year with more herbs…thanks for the advice!
You’re welcome Paulina – enjoy your planter next year!
I love your planter with herbs by the door ! Neat idea ! I have all m garden in pots . i’m trying potatoes like was shown on google only instead of boards I used tractor tires and also a barrel cut in half ! Will let ya’ll known how the work out .
Sounds like a great idea! Yes let me know how it works out Mary!
Very pretty pot. I was wondering about the mint as soon as you mentioned it-great solution. I love planting herbs in a pot but I always forget to dry some for the winter.
Wondering if you had any problems putting the dill in with the rest of the herbs. I’ve wanted to grow it for awhile, but had read somewhere that it doesn’t grow well with other plants. Your plants look lovely, and has inspired some ideas for pots that have gone empty!
Actually Angela the dill is doing the best and growing like wild fire!! Thanks for your compliments and have fun growing your own herb garden!
I’ve been thinking about doing this for while. Now that we’re in the middle of the summer I’m wondering if it’s too late?
I don’t think it’s too late Kathryn! These herbs grow really quickly and will even continue to grow in the fall until the frost and really cold weather hits! I suggest you make one up and enjoy all the fresh flavours!
Hi! So do you put the tin can with the mint in the pot with the rest of the herbs and then put soil over the top of it?
Thanks, Lori
Yes – place the mint that’s in the can into the pot along with the other herbs. Lightly cover top of tin can with soil!