Okay…so you want to grow herbs at work. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but with a few tips growing herbs at work might just work!  While we can’t ‘rent’ them to you, we can help you understand the best options for getting them onto your work balcony/courtyard.

When you want herbs on your office balcony the first thing to remember is that it’s not for everyone. Gather a few people to start getting some thoughts together.

Herbs need to live outside and generally need full or part sun, or on a very well lit window sill if you use a waterproof container. Consider the best position for the herbs at work and what will be the easiest to grow and the most used (eaten).

Be creative

Create a style by deciding what planter or box you will use. This can be anything that has drain holes in it. Try these ideas:

• A timber fruit crate
• An old wheelbarrow
• Old tool box
• A packing crate
• Large old unused planter pots (fill the base with foam or upturned buckets to give height to the base)
• A bunch of old work boots
• The sky is the limit

The trick here is not planting the herbs directly into the planter. By keeping them in their original small black grow pots, you can simply throw out any that are eaten or not so successful (of course yours won’t die, but just to be sure). These are then easily replaced until you know what works best for you. Now you don’t have dead or dying plants looking dreary, but a continuously lively garden for aesthetics and taste!

Place coconut fibre over the top of the nursery pots to cover them and make them look more decorative. Design your herb garden to combine the herbs spotted with few flowers. This increases visual appeal and brings more colour to the herb garden.

How to get your colleagues to help

Make the rules. You must help with the herbs at work if you want to eat them or even take them home!

• Make a laminated roster and use white board markers for delegating the following:- watering- replacing/purchasing- clipping dead leaves and cleaning up- set up rostering of helpers (you don’t want to be the one always in charge…it should be self-sufficient with enough volunteers.
• The number of people who decide to contribute will determine the number of staff involved in each of the tasks and the number of plants you buy, and who gets to eat them!
• Ask your boss to cover the cost for the monthly replacements. Think how healthy the staff will be!
• Keep all the nursery tags for advice on each herb so you know how to care for them.
• Don’t use pesticides. You won’t need them.
• Most herbs need watering at least every second day so make sure they get extra on Friday so they last over the weekend.

Keeping Herbs Healthy Roster

This post was originally published in January 2018 and has been rewritten and updated for accuracy and relevance.