How to Start an Herb Garden With Mulch

Herbs bring fragrance to the garden and kitchen.

Herbs are small, fragrant plants that grow best in summertime gardens. Many herbs are frost sensitive, and so maintain a season-long lifespan, though others can grow as biennials and perennials in the right areas. The plants turn out a large, continuous herb harvest as long as they're left in the ground. Some herbs repel pests like caterpillars, beetles and aphids, and so serve double roles in the garden as harvesting plants and companions. Choose your favorite herbs, prepare some soil and plant in spring for a fresh herb harvest all summer.

Things You'll Need

• Organic compost
• Hand fork
• Mulch

Instructions

1. Start planting your herb garden in spring after the last frost lifts, to protect the seeds and seedlings from cold temperatures. Plant the herb garden during late-spring veggie plantings to consolidate your work.

2. Set aside plots of 12 to 18 square inches for individual herb plantings in the established garden, or in a new site. If you're preparing a new planting site, look for a spot that offers 5 to 10 square feet, full sun for six hours every day, an even growing surface and quick drainage.

3. Amend soil in new planting sites or established gardens. Crops deplete soil as they grow, so you should always amend soil with a new planting, to give the new plants the vitamins and minerals they need. Turn over the top 3 inches of soil and add 1 inch of organic compost to loosen the soil and add drainage and some nutrition.

4. Plant herbs according to individual cultural practices. Some herbs do better with direct seeding while others do best as transplants. Give each cultivars its require spacing in the garden for healthy air circulation and growth.

5. Water each herb seedling or seed with 2 inches of water to establish it, then spread 1 to 2 inches of organic mulch between plantings and rows. The mulch will maintain soil moisture and warmth, and keep weeds down. The mulch breaks down over time, so turn it into the soil once every six weeks for nutrition and add more mulch.

Tips & Warnings

• Mulch herbs heavily after the ground freezes in winter to maintain biennial and perennial herbs through winter. Use 4 inches of straw or pine boughs at this mulching to keep the plants from freezing.

• Herbs don't require fertilizer at planting and may grow bushy and bitter with too much fertilizer during the growing season. Maintain your plantings with mulch and compost only to keep the herbs sweet and useful.

References

• West Virginia University Extension Service: Growing Herbs in the Home Garden
• North Carolina State Univeristy; Growing Herbs for the Home Gardener; Erv Evans, et al.
• Oregon State University; Garden Hints: How to Grow Flavor-Packed Herbs; Judy Scott