Grow spring herbs in a copper planter

Posted by admin on March 25th, 2010in Charlotte Germane, Garden Planters, Gardening Products | No Comments

By Charlotte Germane, Editor, H. Potter Knowledge blog 2010-2011

Wouldn’t this copper planter be a pretty sight in your garden?

Place it near the kitchen door so, no matter what the spring weather brings, you can step out and snip some fresh herbs for lunch or dinner.

Early spring crops like parsley and chives satisfy your urge to eat from the garden when the weather is just starting to warm up, and your hopeful thoughts turn to what kinds of tomatoes to grow in the summer.

That’s still a long way off, but if you are in USDA Zones 5-9 you can have the green taste of both these herbs to welcome spring.

Find these herbs in small pots at your garden center:

• Curly parsley (Petroselinum crispum) (Crispum? A Latin name we can all understand!)

• Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

Add some blooming daffodils for that extra springy look:

• Yellow trumpet daffodils (Narcissus ‘Dutch Master’)

The combination offers the contrast of shiny copper, curly parsley, smooth chives and silky daffodils. The herbs are excellent companions since they both grow to be a foot tall. The chives will produce lavender flowers—a bonus for garnishes.

Planting spring herbs

Place the planter in full sun. Fill it with rich potting soil and space the herbs 6 to 9 inches apart. Tuck the daffodils in for the design that you like. Water well after you plant, then supplement the rain as needed, so the soil stays moist.

Harvesting parsley and chives

Feel free to pick parsley as soon as the leaves begin to curl. For strongest flavor, harvest in the morning. Snip the hollow chive leaves as soon as you like. Don’t rob all the leaves or you’ll have unhappy herbs.

And don’t snip the daffodil leaves–they are not edible.

Through the seasons

Both herbs transplant well and you can move them out of the planter into other parts of your garden.

The parsley will work in full sun or part-sun until the weather warms up. At that point it will go to seed. Leave the seeds in your garden if you’d like volunteers the following year.

The chives are perennial onions and their bulb-like roots should be divided every few years.

Watch a new video of this copper planter.

Now that you have a cheery planter full of herbs, read on for cooking ideas.