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Can you plant parsley (flat Italian) with lemon balm in the same container?

Hello Angie and all,

Yes Yes Yes - these two go very well together and if you wanted to you could even add a third plant - Chamomile. They all like the same conditions, good composty soil, good and regular watering and moist (not wet soil) and at least 6 hours of sunshine daily. The Chamomile (here just use the flowers) takes a bit longer to grow and will grow taller than the other two, but after two weeks or so you can start to harvest your herbs.

Trimming them regularly will make them bushy.

A good idea is to make a tea with all three herbs. Freshly cut leaves of the parsley and lemon balm can be steeped in near boiling water for 10 plus minutes (add Chamomile flowers if you have any) and then strain and sweeten to taste with honey. It is good for calming you down, assisting you to sleep peacefully and ward off a cold.

Good luck with your herb container Angie, come back and tell us how you went.

Cheers

Thanks for the great growing advice and the tea recipe!

Hello everyone and you -

Thanks Angie, you have given me a good idea for an article as there are many herbs that can be used for teas and as you will guess, herbs for tea can be used alone as a single ingredient or as a blend with like-minded others.

Coming soon to a theatre near you - the article I mean not the blender!

Has anyone grown herbs specifically for tea? Which ones did you like? Let us know if you have a recipe using herb tea as an ingredient?

Cheers now

Thanks, Lestie. I may have chamomile seeds but I had the two herbs and wondered.

Hi Angie and all,

You don't have to mix your chamomile into the tea mix above but it does make a difference along the way.

I grow the German chamomile and have done so from seed. A trick I learnt from one of my garden club herb meetings was not to plant the seeds too deep (or deep at all) or they will take ages to germinate. Just scatter them over the top of your seeding soil which you have dampened.

Then very lightly cover them with soil - use your fingers rather than a tool and then steep them in say 2 inches of water. Leave them so for around 30 minutes then take them out to drain and move them to the warm light area to grow. Because you dampened the soil it will draw all the water your seeds need by watering them this way. Success will be yours with good seed stock.

I am usually an impatient gardener when it comes to planting from seeds and I go for seedlings from the garden centre, but Chamomile (and carrot) seeds I do and am usually successful.

You say you may have some seeds - well know too that Chamomile seeds are pretty hardy and could be good even though you may have had them for a season or two.

Oh my, I can chatter on but I will say cheers for now,

Hello all,

I was just thinking a little and remember a very successful container I planted up that got lots of admiration for several reasons, simplicity being one of them. I can't remember now where I got the idea.

It was a round container that I covered with green shade grass with a perimeter of purple lobelia. I then planted three daffodil bulbs which, when they grew, looked like a mini summer meadow and the contrast of their yellow and purple with the green grass was really pretty.

Maybe you will try something similar? Hope so.

Cheers now