Kitchen container gardens are easy to plant, fun to tend and fabulous to use.
You can harvest and cook all summer long with the herbs and greens in these two gardens.
HERB GARDEN IN A BASKET
Plan: Plant culinary herbs and combine kitchen usefulness with fabulous style and imagination. Punch up your meals and drinks with rosemary, lemon thyme, spearmint, stevia, Italian flat parsley, sweet basil and garden sage. Flavor oils and vinegars with Greek oregano or chives.
Plant: Reinvent this summer’s herb garden by popping a generous collection into a beachy picnic basket located right outside your back door for an easily accessible harvest. Spending the summer up north? Flat-bottomed herb baskets will travel!
Grow: Make sure to plant your herbs in well-drained soil and avoid overwatering. Herbs need at least 8 hours of sun each day. Soil of low to average fertility is preferred. Guard plants against leginess by trimming them for kitchen use—this keeps herbs bushy and productive.
Harvest: Liven up your cocktail with muddled herbs, or garnish a spritzer with a floating edible flower. Use a sprig of rosemary as a swizzle, mint and basil in sangria, and dried, powdered stevia as a sweetener in teas and lemonade. Mint goes with bourbon like the Cubs go with Wrigley Field.
SALAD GREENS CONTAINER GARDEN
Plan: Plant succulent, cool-season salad greens in a low bowl—Peter Rabbit’s dream. Think heirloom lettuce, triple-curled parsley, spring onions, edible pansies and arugula.
Plant: Parsley garnishes not only a plate, but also your salad bowl garden. Buttercrunch, bibb, romaine and loose-leaf lettuces in striking color combinations turn the ordinary into ornamental!
Grow: Cool-season salad plants can take a bit of shade as the weather warms up. They require 6 hours in full sun with consistent moisture each day.
Harvest: Keep lettuce productive by harvesting the outer leaves, as a cut-and-come-again harvest.
Healthful homegrown produce satisfies the senses, is easy on the budget and is tonic for the gardener’s spirits. Happy planting!
Lisa Hilgenberg is a Horticulturist in the Fruit & Vegetable Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
