The first summer I grew cucumbers in a container along with my container herb garden, I learned something I never would have figured out right away in a bigger garden.
The flowers were blooming, fruiting, and then drying up and falling off. The little fruits would start to form and then stop. I spent a few days watching a single pot before I understood what was actually happening. No pollinators were coming! Or not enough of them at least. So the little flowers were opening and closing without anyone stopping by, and everything I had planted was just sitting there, waiting.
I bought more flowers for the patio to attract them. I started hand-pollinating with a small brush, moving from flower to flower on my own, until the bees came and started doing it.
That is the thing about containers. You cannot set them and forget them. There is not enough volume to be careless about. When you have four or five pots instead of a yard of raised beds, you pay attention differently. You notice water needs exactly or at least a lot sooner. You notice a stem leaning toward light. You notice when something is quietly failing, and you figure out why.
Growing herbs on a concrete patio in Northern Illinois for years has taught me so much. This is where I learned which ones could handle a spring that runs cold until late May, and which ones really need to wait. I learned that basil in a black pot on a hot patio, getting way to much sun will bolt by August if you push it too early. Lettuce too! That cilantro prefers cool, gives you one good harvest, and then decides it is done. That thyme asks almost nothing and is there every single time you reach for it.
Some herbs and vegetables I have grown on the patio are cucumbers, Jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, strawberries, thyme, rosemary, chives, cilantro, parsley, sage, lemon balm and dill!
This spring the patio is mostly empty. We are planning to move soon, timing still open, and filling containers I would then have to move or leave behind is still something I’m contemplating. I may buy a few small, already-started plants. The ones that stay smaller and are more portable. Some that can come with me wherever we land.
There is a quiet restlessness to this season for me. Being between chapters feels like that, a little. You can see what is coming, roughly, but you cannot plant for it yet!
This is where I learned which ones could handle a spring that runs cold until late May, and which ones really need to wait. I learned that basil in a black pot on a hot patio, getting way to much sun will bolt by July if you push it too early. Lettuce too!
What I keep coming back to is that small works. It has always worked. The knowledge I carry about herbs and what they need did not come from perfect or ideal conditions. It came from a few pots on a concrete patio and enough attention to notice what was actually happening.
If you are starting from a patio, a balcony, a fire escape with a few hours of light, that is enough. Start with one pot. Put thyme in it or your favorite herb! It will be there every time you need it, it will ask very little, and when you reach for it in the middle of cooking something, you will be glad it is close.
That is the whole plan. One pot, tended well, while you wait for something bigger to take shape. Now off to try and practice my own advice 😉 See you next Wednesday!
