Plant up a winter herb pot

It will make a fantastic seasonal display and is useful too!

Start as you mean to go on and get going with a few of those jobs that can be done before spring. Po ed herbs that hold strong in winter can make a fantastic display now with a useful bit of foliage interest, as well as being a handy culinary container from which to pick sprigs for your winter dishes.

Grow everything in a large pot or a long rectangular planter for best effect, and give each plant a deep root run and a wide enough space to grow unencumbered. Ensure lots of drainage holes puncture the bo om, as most of these warmer-climate herbs don’t like wet feet! The same goes for the compost as regards drainage

– treat herbs to a permanent, soil-based compost such as John Innes No 2 or 3, which has been added to with handfuls of grit.

Winter cultivation is a case of keeping herbs away from too much wet in a rain shadow, and raising the pot onto ‘pot feet’ to ease congestion. Keep the plants in a warm, sunny spot as much as you can through the year.