One of the benefits of moving your herb garden into containers is that you can continue growing them, well after the season has ended! It’s really nice to have some fresh herbs over the winter.
A lot of herbs are perennials and will respond well when they’re treated like a houseplant. They don’t typically require a period of dormancy, either, meaning you can just keep growing them after your typical outdoor season ends. As long as the conditions permit growth (i.e. they can photosynthesize), your herbs will continue to produce through the winter months.
We do operate a couple of our grow lights through the winter months, mostly to help the survival of our house plants. But, it also works with this, too! We’ve found this hugely beneficial to counter the short daylight that we receive and it has radically improved our houseplant survival rates. You don’t need to run them for long periods of time, we typically operate ours for about eight hours a day.
You could technically move these herbs outside again the next season and they’d continue to grow. This does help bypass seeding requirements. We don’t do this, however, and will raise replacement plants for the following season. The main reason we do this is to avoid the root systems from becoming too compacted. Just like with houseplants, herbs that are perennialized this way should be up-potted at certain points to support continued growth.
We do generally slow down any fertilizer applications for these winter months. We aren’t trying to get “turbo growth” like we are during the growing season. It’s fine to give them a bit of food here and there, though, and this will keep your production going.
So, if you were wondering how you can get some “fresh goods” from your garden into your winter months, this is one way to do it!
