SOW, GROW AND PRESERVE HERBS

It’s time to bid farewell to annual culinary herbs, such as basil, large-leafed rocket and French tarragon, and turn instead to the perennials – rosemary, sage, oregano and thyme – to add oomph to autumn meals.

Depending on where you live, Italian and curly parsley will behave as either an annual, perennial or a biennial, but you can prolong parsley's usefulness by cutting out the central flowering stalks when they appear.

If you still have basil on the go, make pesto, and freeze as ice cubes just before you add cheese. When you want to use it, thaw and add the cheese. Any flowering tops still on your basil plants can be dried and added to potpourri.

Clumps of chives (and garlic chives) can be divided now and replanted. Make sure each division has 6-8 bulbs and add compost to the soil before replanting. Keeping the water up helps avoid sapsucking aphids.

Prune rosemary lightly, and be careful not to cut sage back too hard or it can die back. Thyme also appreciates a light haircut if it’s starting to get woody or dying out in the centre of clumps.

The last of your French tarragon can be used to flavour cider vinegar. Take cuttings of your tarragon plants too and keep them sheltered over winter.

Remove summer savory (an annual) when plants die down. Propagate winter savory (a perennial) by layering stems.

Take hardwood cuttings of lemon verbena and keep them in a sheltered spot over winter. Cut back old growth on lemon balm plants and remove any plants that are growing where not intended. In cooler areas, bring lemongrass into a sheltered spot. Cut back the leaves of lemongrass, leaving stems.

Sow wild rocket (also sold as arugula and perennial rocket) direct. This hardy rocket has a stronger flavour and a smaller, more serrated leaf. It’s yummy tossed through pasta or on pizza.

If your mint dies down in winter, here’s an easy way to preserve it. Make a batch of quince or crabapple jelly – both fruits are rich in pectin so set well – and, after bottling half the batch as a sweet jelly, stir in a splash of red wine vinegar and heaps of chopped mint into the rest for a savoury option.