As one who has been kitchen gardening for a while (and is offering a “growing and cooking with herbs” workshop the week-end of Labor day) may I suggest that you move your herbs into larger containers as the plants grow? They look too tightly planted for good growing: they won’t have much room to expand. And while most herbs will indeed take – and prefer – full sun, in a pot, in summer, on a deck, I second prior recommendations to try to give them shade in the afternoon. And you probably will have to water twice a day when it’s really hot – again because they are in pots!

Have fun! There are many many ways to appreciate herbs. The first step is to plant them! so hooray for you, Sala!

Trim them regularly, herbs love to be harvested and grow back thicker. Trim them back when you see them flowering. You will get a longer harvest if you postpone the flowering. Let them flower late summer just so they can have the joy of beautifying the world and going to seed. If they get to hot, herbs like Cilantro will “bolt”…i.e. grow long, leggy, and go to flower and seed faster than you can process what it is trying to do.

Mints take over and send out runners, so when you transplant later you might want the Lemon Balm and other mints to have their own pots so they don’t choke out the other herbs.

I think you will do a lovely job! If they need some feeding, herbs love fish emulsion. You can get it at Southern States. You dilute it in water. Smells gross, looks bad, does wonders for plants. Best of luck!

I haven’t tried Coldstone, but I recently discovered Hagen-Daz’s ginger ice cream, which is part of their “five ingredient” line. It is pretty darn addictive.