Container Herb Gardens Articles & Resources

3. Remember to mix flowers with your herbs and vegetables. White Impulse impatients brighten this garden.

patio produce

Left: A sunny patio with room for 12-inch-deep raised beds can keep your family in sun-ripened salads all summer. Turn your soil into blue-ribbon-vegetable beds by adding organic matter and earthworms.

1. Chives make a tasty, colorful centerpiece or garden border. Harvest by clipping bunches of outer leaves.

2. Carrots today can be short and round or the traditional long, tapered form. Try growing baby carrots with the varieties Planet or Thumbelina.

3. New Zealand spinach isn't a true spinach but does boast flavor similar to its commonly grown cousin. It promises harvests even during hot summer months.

4. Colorful leaf lettuces create a bed edging that's deliciously edible. This lettuce lineup stars Red Romaine, Majestic Red, Rouge d'Hiver, and Gourmet BL-T.

back door bounty

Above: You don't have to sacrifice your blooming treasures for the sake of a kitchen garden. Instead, combine your favorite flowers with a few choice vegetables that will reward your family with mouthwatering meals.

1. Plant the makings of gourmet salads with a mix of butter-head and romaine lettuces. The secret to great lettuce is to keep the roots cool and the leaves out of direct afternoon sun.

2. Basil is the epitome of fresh summertime flavors. Try your hand at several varieties of this aromatic beauty in a sunny spot.

3. If you can grow sweet corn in your area, then you should try okra. For small spaces, try the varieties Candelabra or Lee.

front yard freshness

Left: Transform a front lawn into a homegrown harvest by planting herbs instead of grass. Herbs yield ingredients for your family chef and provide scent-sational beauty.

1. Clary sage offers pink flowers and silvery leaves that are used in the same way as garden sage, its cousin.

2. Oregano flourishes in a sunny spot. It's the perfect plant if you need to attract bees to your garden; they love the leaves.

3. Scented geraniums weave elegance and fragrance into kitchen gardens with scented leaves and delicate flowers.

4. Use leaf lettuce to add color with a mix of varieties such as Red Sails and Green Ice, lower right.

5. Count on fennel and its neighbors in this garden, lamb'sears and creeping thyme, for the finishing textural touches.

kitchen garden containers

To enjoy garden-fresh flavors without any yard space, try kitchen gardens in containers. If you're an accomplished kitchen gardener, you'll find container gardens are a great way to try herbs that may be new to your family's palates. You get to sample the flavor without committing precious garden space to an unknown taste. To get the most from your container garden, use a shallow container with a wide diameter and drainage holes.

1. Purple (Opal) basil is big on flavor and long on looks. Its purple leaves add an artistic flair to any herb garden.

2. Parsley seed is very fine and slow to germinate. Mix seeds with sand for a more even sowing.

3. Rosemary's gray-green leaves pack a pungent flavor that's perfect in roasted chicken or as an herb butter.

4. Thyme comes in all sorts of flavors and leaf colors. For variation, try lemon, lavender, or woolly thyme.

kitchen garden containers

Caring for your container gardens is easy if you remember to place your pots in a sunny spot that's convenient for watering and harvesting. Water your containers when the soil is dry.

1. Heliotrope teams up beautifully with herbs. Its purple flowers aren't edible but will contribute a sweet fragrance to the aromatic bouquet of an herb garden.

2. Dwarf or piccolo basil makes any container a pestoready garden. Its small size may be perfect for pots, but its flavor is big enough for any pasta creation.

3. Pinch out the growing tips on rosemary to create a bushy, fuller plant.

4. Cinnamon basil takes its green cousin to a new tastebud-tingling level with leaves that hint of cinnamon.

5. Common culinary thyme (also known as English or French thyme) is slow growing but relatively pest free. Creating a kitchen garden is fun: think of it as painting a masterpiece with living colors and textures that are jam-packed with taste. To get started, make a must-have list of your favorite herbs and vegetables. Plant an eye-pleasing still life of herbs with a mix like the French tarragon, wild bunching onion, and purple sage, above. In vegetables, start with a colorful border of leaf lettuces. Then choose new varieties of your family's favorites, such as burgundy snap beans, purple peppers, or blue potatoes, to serve up multi-hued meals.

TEST GARDEN TIPS

Raised beds make all the difference when growing vegetables. Soil warms up faster and lets you get plants off to an early start. Peter Chan, our Test Gardener in Oregon, tried a weatherproof, plastic raised bed kit last spring.

1. "Plastic planks don't rot like wood," he says, "Rotting wood attracts slugs. With plastic, I had fewer slugs."

2. Peter reinforces the plastic planks with rebar stakes hammered into the ground at the joints along the bed's sides.

Your kitchen garden's composter doesn't have to be a high-ticket item. Peter designed his compost bin for a mere $50.

1. Peter's bin is made of 2x6 cedar boards with 4x4 posts. A perforated 4-inch drain pipe increases airflow to the compost, which rests on a bed of branches to boost airflow under the pile. A plastic cover keeps compost moisture consistent.

2. Well-rotted compost is easily retrieved by removing the lower board, which rests in a 2 1/2-inch projecting guide.

Pages 93--102: herb and vegetable seeds--Shepherd's Garden Seeds, 30 Irene St., Torrington, CT 06790; 203/482-3638. in California: 408/335-6910. The Cook's Garden, . Box 535, Londonerry, VT 05148; 802/824-3400. Johnny's Selected Seeds, Foss Hill Rd., Albion, ME 04910-9731; 207/437-4301. Park Seeds, Cokesbury Rd., Greenwood, SC 29647-0001; 803/223-7333. Herb seeds, plants, and books--Richters Herb Catalog, 357 Hwy. 47, Goodwood, Ontario, L0C 1A0, Canada; 905/640-6677. Raised bed kits and composters--Gardener's Supply Co., 128 Intervale Rd., Dept. PRBHG, Burlington, VT 05401; 800/955-3370. Composters--Gardens Alive!, 5100 Schenley Pl., Lawrenceburg, IN 47025; 812/537-8650.

Pages 93--102: Garden designers--Phyllis W. Cole, Baywood, 114 Bay St., Osterville, MA 02655. Gail Bernard, 2675 NW. Overton, Portland, OR 97210. . Shuster & Co., . Box 293, Southampton, NY 11969; Gretchen Mann; 243 Hamburg Rd., Lyme, CT 06371. Herb Farm, 32804 Issaquah Fall City Rd., Fall City, WA 98024.

Kitchen Gardens

For kitchen gardens like those shown on pages 93-102, try these products specially selected for the readers of Better Homes and [.[R]] magazine.

COUNTRY [.[R]] BOOK OF HERBS

Includes information about herbal history plus growing, harvesting, and using herbs in foods, fragrances, dyes, and potpourris. Hardcover, 192 pages. ($)

KITCHEN GARDEN SEED COLLECTION

From Shepherd's Garden Seeds, this special collection of 18 seed varieties includes both vegetables and herbs for a complete kitchen garden. You'll receive one packet each of: tricolor bean mix, Nantes carrot, sweet broadleaf basil, purple opal basil, French chives, cilantro, Dukat leaf dill, bronze fennel, summer savory, single leaf parsley, French sage, French thyme, oakleaf lettuce, Tom Thumb baby bibb lettuce, red Ruebens romaine lettuce, White Lisbon bunching onion, Otina leeks, and true Greek oregano. You'll also receive a seed starting guide and herb and salad recipes. ($)

RAISED BED KIT

Perfect for limited space or difficult soils, raised beds can be set up almost anywhere and filled with good soil. They require less water and fertilizer than standard gardens and can be planted intensively to crowd out weeds. From Gardener's Supply Company, our 4x8-foot kit is made of UV-stabilized PVC plastic and contains 6 planks, 4 corner posts, and 2 side posts. All parts assemble easily with self-locking brackets. Sorry, we are unable to ship to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or Canada. ($)

ULTIMATE COMPOSTING KIT

Exclusively for the readers of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, we've arranged with Gardener's Supply Company to put everything you need to start composting in one kit. The 9 1/2 cu. ft. capacity Composter is made of lightweight 50 perent recycled plastic. It measures 26x26x30 and features a snugfitting one-piece lid and 4 slide-up doors for removal of finished compost from any side. The 20-inch rustproof stainless steel Compost Thermometer monitors the temperature. The 34 1/2-inch galvanized steel Aerator helps mix compost for faster results. With cushioned rubber grips, it features two hinged flaps at the bottom that open out to lift material within the pile. Minor assembly required. An 8-pound bag of Super Hot Compost Starter will "rev-up" your compost pile with a high energy blend of nitrogen and hungry microorganisms. The bulletin, "Successful Composting Made Easy," rounds out the package. Sorry, no shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or Canada. ($)

TO ORDER

All prices listed above include shipping, handling, and sales tax, if applicable. To order with your Mastercard, Visa, or American Express card, call Better Homes and [.[R]] Reader Shopping Service at 800/881-4066. To order by mail, make a list of the products you wish to purchase and calculate the total from the prices shown. Then send your list along with a check or money order for the full amount to: Better Homes and Gardens Reader Shopping Service, Department 9503, . Box 9128, Des Moines, IA 50306-9128.

Page 76: Raised Bed Gardening System, Ultimate Composter Kit--Gardener's Supply Co., 128 Intervale Rd., Burlington, VT 05401. Kitchen

Garden Seed Collection--Shepherd's Garden Seeds, 6116 Highway 9, Felton, CA 95018-9709.