Gardening

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Fresh mint, parsley, coriander, and basil are some of my favorite herbs. They look good. They smell great. They taste even better. Most of all, they are conveniently available at my local supermarket. Easy and tasty – just the way I like them to be.

However,

I wouldn’t say I like to pay €1.99 (about $2.75) a pot knowing that they’ll be dying tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Fortunately, it is straightforward to make them long-lasting by repotting them and turning them into a one-pot indoor herb garden as soon as you get home.

What you need:

• 4 x supermarket herbs such as mint, parsley, coriander and basil.
• 10 – 12 liters of organic potting soil such as Organics Granular Fertilizer for All Plants.
• 1 x large pot with a built-in drainage system such as Fiskars Ariana with Self-Watering Grid.
• A pair of gardening gloves.
• A garden tool set.
• Some water.

Please note that I am using a square pot with a built-in drainage system of 40x40x33cm or about 15,75×15,75x12inch because for me, not only it’s easier to repot four different herbs due to the four corners of the square pot, but it’s also the only large-enough pot available.

In the end, it does not really matter whether you’ll be using a round or square pot as long as it is large enough to easily hold about 10 – 12 liters of potting soil and has a proper, functioning built-in drainage system.

What you need to do:

1. Remove the plastic covers from the herbs and let them “cool down” for a short while.
2. Meanwhile, put the potting soil into the large pot.
3. Moisten the potting soil lightly but thoroughly with some water.
4. Remove the original tiny pots of the herbs.
5. Squeeze and loosen the roots of the herbs very gently so they can “breath in”.
6. Dig 4 holes in the potting soil using the garden tool set.
7. Place the herbs one by one into the large pot and firm the potting soil around the roots gently.
8. Water them when finished to freshen them up.
9. Place the large pot indoors where they can get full sunlight or on your balcony (if you’ve had one).
10. Water them regularly. Do not over-water.

As you can see from the image above the supermarket herbs come usually in crampy, tiny pots, which are all rooted and have barely potting soil. Hence, a need for a large pot, a lot of potting soil, and a built-in drainage system to repot into so they can live on, or at least longer than 3 months.

Having said that, if you have bought more than four different supermarket herbs, please use an even larger pot or repot them into 2 – 3 large pots so they’ll get enough space to grow.

Do you have other tips and tricks on repotting supermarket herbs? Please share them in the comment section below. Thank you and happy repotting!

Update:

I just wanted to give you an update on my one-pot herb garden. The herbs are (still) alive and kicking on the balcony. I’ve also noticed that the mint is growing faster than the other herbs. All in all, the full sunlight has been treating them very well indeed (see Vine below):

Bonus tips:

• Love to create your herb garden? Click to order fresh herbs from Amazon.com.
• Some of the items are available at AmazonFresh. Not a member yet? Start your AmazonFresh 30-day FREE Trial from Amazon.com (US), Amazon.co.uk (UK) or Amazon.de (Germany).