Kindest cuts How to keep your herbs happy

THE storms and gales are hopefully behind us, so as we bravely venture into the garden we see some herbs are also coming back to life. Winter dormancy is over.

The herb garden’s not at its prettiest, so I’m glad of any residents that look after themselves. Sweet Cicely is pushing up, the leaves looking almost like the back of a clenched fist.

You inevitably need to keep a weather eye on the spread of exuberant toughies like sweet cicely. This umbellifer has delightful flower umbels and although the young leaves and aniseed-flavoured seeds are very useful, the ripe seeds do spread prolifically.

Lovage is more self-contained and, reaching 2-3m, has a large root system that keeps lesser vegetation at bay. Its tender young celery-like shoots, together with potatoes, make a brilliant soup.

But other herbs need a tidy up. Get rid of any of last year’s growth that you’ve left as a protective cover. Chives will be several centimetres tall by now, so dry stalks must go. I find combing through with my fingers does the job. Like chives, tree onions need sorting and weeding. A topdressing of home-made compost replaces nutrients lost over the winter.

Remove any slimy old stems of the likes of sorrel to prevent damage to fresh growth. And since young sorrel leaves are a magnet for slugs, you may disturb some at their dinner.

Salad burnet isn’t on a mollusc menu, but the evergreen leaves provide welcome shelter, so after removing decaying brown vegetation, set a slug trap.

Woody evergreens like rosemary, thyme and sage now need a trim. Snip off any damaged or dead branches, cutting back to any new growth.

Established woody herbs such as hyssop, lavender and winter savory should also be pruned. I remove most, but not all, of last year’s growth to keep the herb in check. Since they don’t usually grow from older wood,

I won’t overprune 2019 wood till I see where the fresh shoots are sprouting. That’s because these plants don’t always play by the book. I’ve got an ancient lavender which supposedly can’t grow from gnarly old stems yet it mischievously does so.

But approach other parts of the herb garden, like the mint bed, cautiously if you don’t want to give blood. The stubs left after last autumn’s cut-back have hardened nicely over winter. So before weeding or picking some early shoots check these lethal stems are good and short. If not, strim or cut back nearly to ground level.

This discomfort is nothing compared to some winter damage in the herb garden. After the recent floods, I found a poor thyme drowning in a pool of water. I know this is exceptional, but do check your ground is free-draining. Dig up and repot

in gritty compost any small herbs that are damaged. They will dry out and probably recover, throwing up fresh growth if kept in aerated soil.

Larger herbs with extensive root systems must take their chance. Like all stressed plants, they’ll take longer to recover, so wait for a month or so and hope for the best.

Drainage can be a serious problem in pots. If you have soggy compost, lay the pot on its side to check drainage holes aren’t blocked and need clearing. This problem sometimes occurs when you don’t use pot feet or even a couple of slates to raise a container slightly off the ground.

Repot if the compost is soggy, generously mixing in coarse grit. If the planter is too big to move, take out what soil you can, forking in lots of grit, and top up with compost.

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