How to Grow Herbs In a Mason Jar
Here’s how to grow fresh, delicious herbs right in your kitchen in a mason jar…
There are lots of ways that you can plant herbs to grow indoors or on a patio, but mason jars are some of the most popular containers. Not only are they small and easy to move around, but they also provide a fun and rustic look for your indoor herb garden.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind when planting herbs in a mason jar. For example, mason jars don’t have drainage holes in the bottom, and they also may be more difficult to label than pots made of other materials.
Here are a few tips for planting a fun and practical mason jar herb garden:
1.) Gather Your Supplies
The first thing to do when you intend to plant herbs in a mason jar is to gather your planting supplies. You should use larger size mason jars with wide mouth openings (32-oz jars work well). You will also need some potting mix, your herb seeds or plants, a handful of small rocks for each jar, and some labels for the jars. The labels can be anything you like, from regular stick-on labels you write on with a marker, to chalkboard labels that are easy to change if you change the herbs in the jar.
2.) Plant Your Herbs
Now that you have your supplies ready, you can get started planting your herbs. Here are the basic steps involved in planting herbs in mason jars:
- Puts in rocks first. You can also use gravel or marbles at the bottom of the jar. These are there for drainage since your mason jars don’t have holes in the bottom. Just a thin layer or small handful of rocks is all you need.
- Add your potting mix on top of the rocks. Make sure you are using potting soil, and not regular soil. Potting soil is lighter and often includes organic material that helps the herbs to thrive indoors. You should fill the jar to within a couple of inches of the top.
- Add the seeds. By this point, you are ready to add your herb seeds. You can also transplant herb plants, but some herbs don’t like to be transplanted, so starting from seed is usually recommended – especially since it may be hard to transplant larger herb plants into the mouth of the jars.
- Now add your labels, and you’re good to go! If you don’t have labels for the jars, you can always write on a craft or popsicle stick and just stick it in the soil inside the jar. This is an easy and effective way to label each herb mason jar.
3.) Care for Your Herbs
Now just place your jars in a sunny window, and make sure to water them once a week or so, when the soil starts to look dry. One advantage of planting in mason jars is that you can see what the soil looks like below the surface. Keep an eye out and be sure to water before the soil dries out much beyond just the surface. Most herbs like a fair amount of sunlight, so try to find a windowsill where they get good sun for at least a few hours per day.
Snip off the outer leaves to harvest, and your herbs will re-grow throughout the year, providing you with plenty of fresh, tasty herbs for all your kitchen needs!