Container Gardens of Greens and Herbs
 

I have a lot of 9" mum pots left over from last year. I am thinking that I can plant then with lettuce, greens, and herbs and sell them as container gardens in the spring. The pots are quite large, and I use a time-release fertilizer, so it should be a good product for the customer.

I planted my first seeds yesterday. So far I have:

Emily Basil, dwarf variety, my favorite basil
Ethiopian Blue Mustard, from Fred Hempel, one of the best greens I ever tasted
Endives
Cat Grass, which is just wheat
Rainbow Chard
Green and Red Mizuna
Green and red leaf lettuce
Kale
Cilantro

Customers always ask for more than one variety of herb mixed into the same container, but I have a hard time accomplishing that. I have seen the same product on big box store shelves and the mixture is always very poorly paired, like planting Genovese Basil next to rosemary. That's going to look great for about a week, until the basil overgrows and chokes out the rosemary.

I could probably grow two microdwarf tomatoes in one pot, also. I have a yellow cherry, Aztec, that I like. I can pair that with a dfollet red cherry. Dan's red/pink microdwarf cherries are the best I have ever tasted. I think customers would love the combination with Aztec in the same pot.

I will update this thread with pics. I also welcome any suggestions of seeds or rooted plugs to try in these container gardens.

Tatsoi is adorable.

Nan

I've done different types of basils (purple, lemon, lime, Thai, genovese, etc) and they usually go pretty well and don't overpower each other early on.

The Ethiopian Blue Mustard sound interesting, I think I'll give it a try.

Thanks

I could see people buying a mixed pot of nothing but (well-labelled) basils.

Nan

I agree with Nan on the basils. Emily gets pretty large for me, but I seem to have a way with basil. There are also smaller ones like Sweet Greek and Spicy Globe. Some small parsley might be nice in containers like that. Darki and Wega are really small, pretty plants, for parsleys.

I think if you have a nice simple label describing what's in the pot, how to grow and use it in a few sentences, that would make it even more appealing. I'm always stunned by how little people know about the vegetables and herbs at the markets here.

[QUOTE=Cole_Robbie;683072] I also welcome any suggestions of seeds or rooted plugs to try in these container gardens.[/QUOTE]

[B][FONT=Garamond][SIZE=3]I'm trying Dwarf Greek Basil (aka Pluto Basil) this year for the first time. That might be worthy of consideration.[/SIZE][/FONT][/B]

Shallots & parsley in with the lettuce, chard, & mizuna. Make the basil purple.

Nan

Basil: 3-4 flats with sweet, purple, pluto and lettuce, then you create a mix within each pot.

I bought too much sweet genovese once and I took it with me to market. When they purchased a basil mix I'd sprinkle fresh seed around the edges so they could try their hand at growing and have a 2nd harvest. They walked away quite happy.

Ideas :

Aristotle Basil

some regular chives very useful ( and purple flowers )

variegated lemon thyme (cant remember the variety)


One or two of the Japanese minis (Rejina , Rejina yellow, Chibikko etc. )

Sorrel in an evergreen pot .

Tom Thumb peas grew well for me in a similar pot size

Have you thought of a Salsa mix, Spaghetti Mix, etc?

I bought half dead mixed theme herb pots from Chef Jeff for a quarter end of season, manly for the pots. Regular retail was $5.99. A few not only came back, but had set seed and regrew. I have them in a sunny window, no fertilizer, lots of neglect. They are in the background of a photo in an overwintering pepper thread. I will try and find it.

The pot I have at home is Mexican : oregano, thyme, cilantro. I have another that had a single dill in the center but I can't remember the companions. There must be an Italian too.
I overwintered their curly parsley pot, which had 3 plants in it. Whatever potting medium they used is a bear to keep from drying out. Probably why they were a quarter.

Herbs are quite the money maker and hard to find. I liked that Chef Jeff had mixed pots and also a lesser amount of a single popular herb. The pea pot is a cute idea too.

Exotic/Novelty pot of thyme could attract customers:
Lemon thyme (there's a yellow variegated variety)
Caraway thyme
Orange Balsam thyme
Italian Oregano thyme
Variegated green/white

I love this idea. :) The mum pots should be plenty deep for bigger rooted stuff like kale, arugula, cilantro, parsely, dill. The shallower rooted stuff like lettuce, basil (?) can fit in as companions around the deep ones. You can definitely come off with a beautiful bouquet effect too, why not.:yes:

Personally I would keep away from the woody perennials like rosemary, which IMO don't really like crowding and competition. Although you could always put the long lived woody one in the center, and then fill in with annuals that will eventually be removed. That might be a good sales tactic as well, if the woody perennials (rosemary, sage, thyme, savoury or hyssop) are in demand. (I haven't tried selling those but basil and cilantro were hot sellers, parsely too has appeal. Celery = couldn't sell it. :surprised:) OTOH the woody herbs also take a long time from seed, and are slower growing even from cuttings, so you would want to plan well ahead.

Thanks for all the suggestions. My mustard, Kale, chard and endives are up. The mustard was up in about 36 hours.

I noticed that seedway sells dandelion seed, a tame variety that does not flower as quickly as the wild stuff. I think I could sell a couple pots of those every week. It's a good conversation starter, anyway, as I'm sure that people will ask me if I am selling the weeds out of my yard.

Dandelion greens are a hot item in neighborhood produce market. Purslane, too.

I have a couple pics of my indoor winter garden.

The big flat has two rows of lettuce one arugula in between (which already got trimmed) and yu choy sum at the back. Arugula, yu choy, komatsuna are always faster growing and bigger than lettuce when sown together. And so is kale, so much faster. That is baby leaf kale and lettuce in the small flat which has already been cut twice, even though it's too shallow for them the kales are bouncing up way faster than lettuce.

My dill, cilantro and parsely were sown the same time but dill germinated much faster so the cilantro and parsely is still at the first true leaf stage. I'm trying the dill densely planted in a deep container, it's ready for a first haircut. Although they are thin (competition for lights as I started too many things) they could be pretty in combination with bolder leaf like kale.

These are some spare romaines I have going in sixpacks. Freckles and Cold Hardy are really similar although Freckles is the fastest growing of the lot. Sherwood is a new one to me, amazing dark green color they are billed as an early "mini romaine". And the Red Romaine are pretty small but a great color. I don't know why but red lettuce always seems to grow much slower than the green. I noticed it every time in the cut-and-come rows at the farm, especially frilly reds, but they are gorgeous and so useful. I guess I would plant them earlier than the others, if I wanted to make a splash in a pot. :yes:

Nice pics, Bower. I just now noticed them.

Here are a few of the first container gardens, a mescalin mix and Ethiopian Blue Mustard

Those look great! :) Love the Ethiopian Blue. I have a sweet kale that color but the leaves are plain rounded, that scalloped leaf edge is cool! 8-)
When is your first market coming up?

The 24th, nine days from now. The greens might be the only thing I have to take.

The greens were a big hit at market. I just posted a few pics here:
[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost.php?p=691165&postcount=512[/url]

I wanted to add that the flavor of everything I have tried has been absolutely delicious. The texture and juiciness are unique, too. It's a lot different than grocery store greens.

One customer started munching on a leaf of some that he had just bought. "Wow," he said...."that's really good. These greens make me happy."

It's a fact that greenhouse or indoor greens are insanely crisp and tender compared to outdoor field produce - at least it's certainly true here where we have so much wind - not even to compare the grocery stuff which is outdoor tough and then has been shipped and stored for weeks before we see it. :) I bet you'll get repeat customers. :yes:

Cole... just curious how you germ. the seed? Did you sprout inside then transplant? Or, did you do it all outdoors under plastic?

I direct-sow into the pots, germinate them inside under lights, and then they go out into the greenhouse as soon as I have sprouts. I am learning, on our few sunny days, that they like the shade better inside the greenhouse.