underplanting in pots/fig help

[BroadRipple]

if that's even the right word...I have a fig, a rosemary standard, a bay standard and an olive in biggish pots, and want to plant other things with them...but don't want the big plant or the small ones to die b/c of competition. If I stick to thyme/sage etc in the herb/olive pots so water needs are similar, will they all be ok? and would co-habitees for the fig need to be thyme etc too or could they be eg basil/salad? I have no idea, I now realise, if I'm supposed to be feeding/watering the fig a lot or hardly at all...
Thanks for any advice.
BroadRipple

[endymion]

We've got a standard bay in a massive pot, it's about 2ft diameter and about 18 inches high. It's full of John Innes mature plants compost. We've got some clipped Box (Buxus) round the edge, which we keep to about 5 or 6 inches, and a also lot of spring bulbs. The bulbs are over and done with by the time the other plants have woken up for the year.

We top dress with manure pellets and some fresh compost once the bulbs have finished flowering but are still in leaf, and water very well to wash the nutrients down, but are a bit mean with watering throughout the summer. It seems to work okay, because both the bay and the box are growing strongly.

So if your container is big enough, and the compost good enough, I don't see why you can't plant some herbs with any of your plants as long as you remember to feed them.

Your Rosemary, though, might not last as long as the other three because they tend to be relatively short-lived.

[BroadRipple]

Yes it has to be said that my rosemary's looking ropy...which is annoying as others' seem to be huge. But thanks for encouragement. Do you use chicken poo pellets? I've read you shouldn't use them in pots, but have also been encouraged to use them, including by someone from whom I bought blueberry bushes b/c apparently they help with the pH value.

[endymion]

I mix about a handful of organic manure pellets with top dressing, I haven't a clue if it's chicken or not, although it's got a heck of a whiff to it. I only do it once, early in the year.

We've no plans to repot the bay, ever, not unless the pot it's in either cracks or breaks, so I don't actually want it to get much bigger. That's probably why generous feeding isn't the smartest thing to do.

Hmm, makes me think of Bonsai - which I suppose is almost the same sort of thing.

We top dress our blueberry with bark chippings and pine needles.