▷ How to create a beautiful vase arrangement with aromatic herbs

On the balcony or terrace – not only brightly colored flowers, but also spices. Even better, spices can seem just as harmful as flowers. Lina Puodžiūtė, teacher of the greening course “Yellow wheelbarrow”. seminars showed how to plant a beautiful arrangement of herbs in a pot. Let’s go through all the steps one by one.

1. WHICH SPICY PLANTS ARE SUITABLE

There are many aromatic herbs that can be grown in pots: basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, sage, chives, even parsley and wild strawberries. How to choose plants?

based on what you like most
and based on where you will keep the dish.

The good news is that herbs usually come from warmer climates, so they prefer a sunny location and are less sensitive to lack of humidity. Therefore if your balcony is exposed to the sungrow sage, lavender, thyme, rosemary. Just thinking about them makes your nose tickle with their delicious scent.

Whether your balcony or terrace It has some shadeHerbs that require more humidity, such as basil or parsley, can also grow there. They will also need richer soil.

In any case, do not forget that herbs can have interesting relatives who will more decorative compared to common species. For example, the apple mint variety (Mentha suaveolens) called “Variegata” has white mottled leaves, and basil can be not only the usual green, but also dark purple, after which it still blooms with vertical inflorescences.

2. CREATE A COMPOSITION

To create a herbal composition the same rules apply as for any other floral composition. First of all, choose one plant that will be the centerpiece of the entire group. If the pot will be visible from one side, plant the taller plant at the back and the shorter (or swinging) one closer to the edge. If the pot will be visible from all sides, plant the taller one in the center and the lower ones around until the lower one sways.

If you are new to swinging spices, no problem: Plant flowers or other plants with decorative leaves together. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The color of spice compositions is usually nuanced, because it is not the flowers that dominate, but the foliage of various shades. Therefore, planting one or another blooming flower is an excellent tonic solution.

Seminar”Flower arrangements in vase“, the participants unanimously chose a composition of three types of plants: chives (for vertical lines and height), basil (for fruity green color and amazing smell) and lobularia seagrass (lat. Maritime lobularia) (due to the swaying flowers and the intoxicating aroma of honey). The first two are intended for consumption and the third is chosen purely for aesthetic reasons, but its honey-like scent makes for a fun addition to this company. Read on to see what it all looked like.

3. CHOOSE A VASE

Choose a vase based on the environment it will be in, style. Vases resembling galvanized buckets will be suitable for a romantic country house, and boxes imitating concrete for a loft terrace in a new city. Choose a style and don’t get distracted to get a complete look.

The three most important rules are:

First – the more space for roots, the better. So, the larger the composition, the more spacious the container should be.
Second an important rule: the lighter the dish, the better. If the balcony will be decorated with a large vase or a trough, the weight will be important due to the sturdiness of the balcony structures. And if the pot will be outside or on the terrace, the lighter one will simply be easier to move to another place or push a little if necessary. After all, the soil with irrigation water really adds a lot of weight. “This rule does not only apply in places where the vase can be blown away by the wind or there is a risk of theft,” adds Lina Puodžiūtė.
The third the rule is that the vase must have a hole to allow excess water to drain. If the composition is outdoors and there is no space where the water can drain, then after three days of rain the contents of the pot will turn into a swamp and the plants will begin to rot. Therefore ensure an adequate drainage layer and check the presence of a specific opening. When you buy a new vase, sometimes you have to make the hole yourself – it’s easy, because there is a special place in the vase for it.

Now there are all kinds of pots, boxes and flower beds. In the laboratory we chose a vase suitable for the balcony, designed to be hung comfortably on the railing.

4. ADD DRAINAGE AND SOIL MIX

Start with drainage. For this purpose, use clay fragments, pebbles or special expanded clay granules. Apply at least 3-5 cm, in larger flowerbeds even more. Be careful: the pot often has a mark up to the point where it is recommended to add drainage.

Then it’s the turn of the earth mix. Spice plants usually need easily drained and not very fertile soil, so we mix universal substrate, compost and agroperlite. L. Puodžiūtė says that mixing can be done in a separate bucket or a large bowl, but if you plant in a small pot, it is sometimes easier to put the soil directly in and mix it there

If you’ve chosen plants that prefer moisture and require richer soil, add more compost. During the workshop we used a balcony pot that had two compartments, so we could maneuver it: at one end, where we planted the basil, we put more compost. On the other side of the pot, where the chives will grow, we put more peat.

5. ADDITIONAL REMEDIES

Some growers grow herbs without additional fertilizers, others add long-term fertilizers, others use organic means. If you choose one of these, mix it when preparing the soil mix. Very important: do not exceed the specified amount of fertilizer.

After sowing, leave well. If you go on vacation later, leave special water bulbs that will ensure that the plant receives a sufficient amount of moisture.

6. VEGETABLE PLANTS.

Measure before planting, how high you will plant the plants. “The edges of the pot can be of different heights, we look at the lowest edge of the pot and plant so that our soil level is 2-3 cm lower,” advises the specialist. This way we will have enough space so that the water does not run off the sides while watering.

Remove the plant from the pot. If there is a lot of soil around the roots, if you can see very fine white roots, great, your plant is ready for transplanting. Touch it as little as possible, carefully transfer it from the pot to the new container, so as not to hurt the roots. Such a plant will not even feel that it has been moved somewhere.

And if, after removing it from the pot, you see that there is a complete tangle of roots, then such a plant will have to be helped. Therefore it has been grown in pots for too long. Spread the roots with bold movements, scratch them, they must be activated to subsequently release new small roots to start feeding fully again

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