Today we were at Jerry's Home Improvement. They had a really great "herb wheel" for planting herbs in the garden. I think it was about $10. I've seen lots of pictures of old fashion herb gardens, and they were planting in old wagon wheels which kept the herbs separated from one another. I was tempted to buy one of the "wheels" (or nostalgia sake), but I know I will get better use of the plants if they are up on the deck. Maybe some day I will plant a "tea" or "medicinal" herb garden ... then I could justify getting an herb wheel for the garden.
I have fairly big planter boxes for each herb, so to conserve the amount of soil I have to use, I place a small layer of rock at the bottom of the pot, and then I fill the pot with packing peanuts (we used to call them "ghost turds!") to just over the half-way mark in the planter. Next, I place a layer of landscape fabric over the peanuts (to keep the planting mix from falling through) and finally I put in enough potting soil to finish filling the pot, leaving about an 1" margin at the top. Now the pot is ready for the plants. Using the packing peanuts also helps keep the weight of each planter down, so moving the plant is much easier.
Another little tip I just picked up from a friend is to cut herbs (and flowers) with a knife instead of scissors. The reason is because scissors crush the end of the stem, therefore the cuttings can not absorb as much water. So cutting them with a knife will keep your flowers and herbs fresher longer.
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