Herb Planter

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	Herb Planter Herbs can bring color to your landscape and add flavor to your ice tea.

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Transcript: Herb Planter

Mixed container plantings are a great way to add interest to your landscape. And here’s a new idea for you: how about a summer tea time herb planter?

I start with a large container. I like these old galvanized metal containers, but you just have to punch a few holes in the bottom to make sure they drain well.

Then gather a collection of different herbs that are used in flavoring your ice tea.

Mint is a great way to start. This particular mint is peppermint; it’s strongly flavored and does real well in tea. Pineapple mint is also an attractive mint that’s great to use.

For a lemony twist, we have lemon balm and lemon verbena. These herbs can get kind of large so you’re going to have to keep them pinched and pruned back or they’ll overtake the container.

And for sweetener, there’s even a couple of herbs you can use. This is Aztec sweet herb. And the flower heads or seedpods of this are very sweet, almost like Nutrasweet.

Another great herb for sweetening -- and actually my favorite -- is stevia. Take a little pinch for a leaf of this and it’s like putting Nutrasweet or Sweet ‘n’ Low in your mouth. It’s extremely sweet and a great addition to the planter.

Now when you plant these, you want to arrange them around in the planter. I like to mix up the variegated foliage plants, such as this variegated peppermint, with plants that have solid foliage. You want to make sure to put your trailing plants around the edges so they can trail over the sides. The Aztec sweet herb and the peppermint both are good trailing plants.

Firm the soil in around the plants as you set them in. Then just water it in well. I like to fertilize it occasionally with a dilute liquid fertilizer solution. Put it in a sunny spot where it can get good light and enjoy it.

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Last Updated: July 6, 2006