Hi all, My girlfriend and I recently put together our first ever herb garden on our balcony patio. We have multiple plants all in round pots which I believe are sufficient for their size, and they get plenty of sun (southern exposure, I live in Illinois). Oh and none grew from seed I bought small plants and repoted. Some plants are doing great some not so well… please give me some advice on what is going wrong….

tomato, basil, jalapeno, oregano, mint, rosemary, thyme, and sage all seem to be doing great!

now the problems…

parsley and cilantro – both did well for a few weeks then I noticed they were infested with these small larvae eating the leaves and small gnats, I believe they were fungus gnats and larvae… I was told to throw the plants out before they spread to the other plants, so i did, 2 plants down…

arugula – it did well for a few weeks also, after I tossed the infested parsley and cilantro I noticed the arugula had the same bugs, even more! Then it started to flower badly and I didn’t cut it. After some google research I decided to spray all the plants with a soap & water and cover the top of soil with sand to stop the gnat infestation (suppposedly the sand stops them from laying seeds on top of the dirt and spraying with soap/water kills living ones) … this seems to have worked but the arugula still looks bad and wilted not many new leaves… is it done for the season because I let it flower?

onion chives- they grew like crazy for over a month and were delicious, never got the bugs either… now it is starting to wilt and there isnt any new growth… is it too hot maybe? 90+ all this week!

tarragon – I believe its mexican tarragon, it grew well for a few weeks then started to flower, I cut the flowers as soon as I saw them and since then the plant hasn’t grown much and seems to be wilting away…

dill- seems to be getting more and more wilted and not much new growth.

So if someone could give me their 2 cents on the problematic plants and what we’re doing wrong I would really appreciate it . Thanks for your time!

nick&lauren

I have the soil prepared, and I’m making my list for the seeds going on sale next week. This is what I have on the list so far:

Basil
Oregano
Thyme
Chives
Dill
Cilantro

Am I overlooking something very common?
Parsely! See? That is why I asked!

Right now I only have parsley, cilantro, and sweet basil. I also have some dill that I’m going to plant. I also have some chives from a few years ago ( i tend to forget its there lol ) I also want to plant some medicinal/tea herbs which I already have seeds for; chamomile, catnip, ecchinacea to name a few. On my list of culinary herbs to get I can only think of oregano and marjoram offhand. I also need plants that don’t get too large, perhas only a few feet at the most, since I have limited space. Also due to limited space, I’d prefer some herbs with many uses.

I bought a planter because it had parsley, oregano and rosemary in it, but it also has a stevia plant. I know that it’s a sweetener, but how do I process it? what else can I do with it?

I want to make a potted herb garden for a Christmas gift for my dad. He loves cooking and all, and I’d like to make it with the following herbs
-Cilantro
-Basil
-Rosemary
-Oregano
-Parsley
-Tarragon or thyme

Can these herbs be store bought as clippings and planted directly in soil? I’ve heard of just using a clipping of a mature plant and letting it grow in the soil. Is it possible for these herbs? Do I have to get seeds or buy plants?

I have a small herb garden planted in a metal container,and a parsley crop planted ina terra cotta pot. In the metal container there is basil, oregano and thyme. I started them all from seeds, and they are now about 3.5" (parsley is only about 1" because I planted those later on). They seem very healthy and they are being kept outdoors. The only problem is one of the sprouts of the oregano and one of the parsely have a brown tip on one of the leaves. I water them whenever I see the soil is dry, usually about every other day one full water bottle’s worth.

What could be my problem, and how do I fix it?