THE EASY WAY TO GROW YOUR OWN HERB GARDEN It’s simpler than you think!
With just a single pot, you can grow herbs to eat, drink and bring delightful fragrance to your outside space, whatever its size. Here’s how…
Herbs are great to plant because they grow well in pots and thrive on neglect. Ignore them and they probably won’t even notice! As well as revolutionising your cooking, they look beautiful, smell incredible and will bring in lots of bees and butterflies. Their flowers are as pretty as most ornamentals and you won’t be able to stop yourself rubbing the deliciously fragrant leaves between your fingers every time you pass them – instant aromatherapy.
You can grow unusual herbs you won’t find in the supermarket and have copious fresh leaves to hand, to snip into salads and stir-fries. With hardly any effort, you can be self-sufficient in kitchen basics such as parsley, rosemary, bay, thyme, chives, mint, coriander, sage, tarragon and basil, and have more unusual herbs at your daily disposal, too, such as lemon verbena, Thai basil or shiso. Grow your own herbs and they’ll enliven every meal you eat.
FIND THE RIGHT SPOT
You’re much more likely to use your herbs if they’re close to hand, so grow them as near to the kitchen as you can – ideally on the windowsill or outside by the back door. It’s amazing how far even a few feet feels when it’s raining.
Most herbs need lots of sun to grow well, so give them your warmest spot outside or a sunny indoor windowsill. But mint, parsley, coriander, chives, sweet cicely and chervil are happy in shadier spots, too.
PUT THEM IN POTS
Most herbs come from dry, hot climes – soggy, cold soil is their nemesis. Imagine a dusty Mediterranean hillside and that’s their ideal habitat. So unless your garden soil is naturally light and free-draining, herbs will probably be happier in raised beds or pots, where you can control the soil mix. With raised beds, fill them with a mixture of two-thirds topsoil and one-third
horticultural grit or perlite so the water doesn’t hang around for too long, which would cause the roots to rot.
Herbs are great in pots, and a rosemary or tumbling thyme will look lovely on a terrace, or hanging from a wall or fence using a pot ring (try spanishrings.com). Any pot will do, from plastic to an old tin, as long as it has good-sized drainage holes in the base. But classic terracotta pots seem to work particularly well, because the clay is naturally porous, so the compost won’t get too soggy.
The larger the pot, the less often you'll need to water, but many herbs, such as basil (particularly Greek), thyme, oregano, chives, curly parsley and coriander are naturally compact and fit into 20cm diameter pots and window boxes. Fill pots with two-thirds soil-based compost, such as John Innes No 2 or 3, and one-third horticultural grit or perlite.
WHAT TO GROW
It’s best to grow what you normally buy and use. So if you find yourself throwing plastic bags of parsley, basil and coriander into the supermarket trolley on a regular basis, grow lots of these. Then add other kitchen staples, such as thyme, mint for sauces and teas, rosemary and a pretty evergreen potted bay tree, which is useful for soups and casseroles.
Then, if you have enough space, why not add some of the less common herbs? Chervil, sweet cicely, winter savoury, tarragon and dill are all underrated and not so easy to find in the shops. For dramatic looks, try purple basil, tricolour sage or tall, feathery fennel.
The classic Bowles’s mint is a great all-rounder, but why not try chocolate mint (with a scent like After Eight chocolates) or lime mint? Common thyme is delightful, but orange thyme is even more fragrant. To your regular sweet Genovese basil, try adding compact Greek, lettuce leaf or aniseedy
Thai basil. Scented-leaved sages, such as blackcurrant or pineapple, smell delicious and make great syrups to add to drinks. Throw a few lemon verbena leaves into boiling water for a zingy digestif, or grow shiso to make purple martinis.
SEEDS OR PLANTS?
Don’t be tempted to buy supermarket potted herbs and try to grow them on. They’re generally bunches of leggy, overcrowded seedlings and won’t develop into decent plants. Instead, sow seeds or buy small herb plants from a garden centre or online specialist. Whether you start them from seed or buy a plant depends on how the herb grows. Annuals (which die after a year), such as basil, coriander, dill, parsley and chervil, are best grown from seed in spring in small pots or cell trays. Perennials (those that last several years), such as rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage, are best bought as plants. With perennial herbs, it makes sense to buy them small to keep costs down – they grow quickly and larger specimens can be trickier to establish.
HARVEST TIME
Regular snipping is the secret to a healthy herb. In the wild, many of these plants are grazed by animals, so keep them clipped or they will become leggy and unproductive. Cut them back to a growing point (a pair of leaves or just above a new bud), and never cut into old, brown wood, as this can damage the plant. The exceptions are chives, parsley and coriander, where you cut whole stems to the ground. Always harvest with sharp scissors to avoid bruising the stems (Burgon & Ball plant snips are ideal), and use a sharp knife when chopping them to keep the oils in the leaves. Trim thyme and oregano after they flower to keep the plants neat.