Best Herbs to Grow in Pots on a Patio

Why herbs love a patio pot

Few things reward a UK grower quite like a herb pot by the back door. Basil, mint, rosemary and thyme all cope beautifully in containers, and you get to pick leaves just before they hit the pan — which is where the real flavour lives. Shop-bought bunches, by contrast, have usually travelled further than you have this year. The trick is to treat each herb as an individual. They come from different corners of the world, and they want different things from compost, sun and water. Get those basics right and a modest patio can supply you from May to October, with rosemary and thyme carrying on right through the winter.

Start with drainage and decent compost

Almost every container herb failure in this country comes down to wet roots. UK rain is relentless, and a pot that sits in a saucer of water will rot a rosemary in a fortnight. So begin with drainage.

• Choose pots at least 20–25cm across for individual plants, with a generous single drainage hole or several smaller ones.
• Use a soil-based or peat-free multipurpose compost mixed with 20–30 per cent horticultural grit or perlite. This matters most for rosemary, thyme and sage.
• Raise pots onto pot feet or broken tiles so water escapes freely, especially through winter.
• Terracotta is excellent — it breathes and dries out faster than glazed ceramic or plastic, which suits Mediterranean herbs well.

Refresh the top 5cm of compost each spring, or repot entirely every second year. Herbs exhaust nutrients surprisingly quickly in a confined space.

Basil: the thirstiest of the four

Basil is a tender annual that wants warmth, sun and steady moisture. Give it a sheltered south-facing spot and water when the surface of the compost just begins to dry. It hates cold nights, so don't plant it out until late May or early June in most of the UK, and be ready with fleece if a late frost is forecast.

The single most useful thing you can do is pinch out the growing tips. Left alone, basil shoots up, flowers and turns bitter within weeks. Taking the top pair of leaves above a leaf node every week or so forces the plant to branch, doubling your harvest. Pick from the top down, never strip a whole stem bare. If you want a continuous supply, sow a fresh pot every four to six weeks from April onwards and keep them on a sunny windowsill before moving them out. Feed with a weak liquid tomato feed every fortnight once the plant is established.

Mint: keep it in its own pot

Mint is the thug of the herb bed. Its roots travel underground by runners and will fill a container, then escape into anything nearby. Always grow mint in its own pot — and ideally sink that pot into a larger decorative container if you want the look without the takeover. Even within a pot, it will eventually become root-bound and woody.

To keep it productive, lift and divide the clump every spring, discarding the tired centre and replanting the vigorous outer pieces in fresh compost. Water mint more generously than the Mediterranean herbs; it enjoys moisture and will cope with partial shade, though full sun gives stronger flavour. Spearmint is the best all-rounder for cooking, while Moroccan mint makes a finer cup of tea. Pick leaves regularly and remove flower spikes to keep growth leafy.

Rosemary and thyme: sunshine and sharp drainage

These two want to be treated like the Mediterranean shrubs they are. Full sun, gritty compost, and a thorough soak only when the pot has dried out. Overwatering kills far more rosemary than cold ever does. In wet UK winters, move pots against a house wall or under the eaves so rain can't saturate them.

Rosemary grows into a substantial shrub, so give it a pot of at least 30cm and expect to repot every couple of years. Trim lightly after flowering to keep it bushy, but never cut back into old, leafless wood — it rarely regrows from there. Upright varieties suit a pot better than prostrate ones, which tend to sprawl.

Thyme is smaller and perfectly happy in a 20cm pot, and it loves being picked hard. Common thyme, lemon thyme and creeping thyme all work well, and a mixed trough of thymes looks handsome as well as useful. Both herbs are evergreen in all but the harshest UK winters, so you can snip sprigs in January for a roast. Feed them sparingly — a rich diet produces soft, flavourless growth.

Feeding, picking and the patio rhythm

A few habits tie all four herbs together. Water in the morning where possible, aiming at the compost rather than the leaves. Group pots so the thirstier basil and mint sit together, with rosemary and thyme slightly apart in the driest, sunniest spot. Feed soft herbs such as basil and mint every fortnight through summer; feed rosemary and thyme perhaps twice in the whole season.

Pick often. Herbs that are regularly harvested stay compact and flavoursome, while neglected plants run to seed and lose their punch. Keep an eye out for aphids on basil tips and vine weevil in pots — a torchlit evening check now and then saves a lot of grief. Above all, site your pots where you actually walk past them. A herb garden by the kitchen door gets used; one at the bottom of the garden gets forgotten.