Then there's mint. UGA Extension calls mint the most invasive of all the herbs, one that must be aggressively checked in any garden bed. Twenty stories up, in its own glazed pot? Perfectly behaved. The plant that terrorizes ground-level gardeners becomes a model citizen on your balcony.

Few garden investments pay off faster than planting the right herbs — bees find them quickly, visit repeatedly, and reward Atlanta kitchen gardeners with better harvests of tomatoes, peppers, squash, and fruit.