Want to grow herbs? Don’t follow the herd

WANT to branch out from home-grown mint, parsley and thyme? Gardening expert and TV presenter Sarah Raven – author of a new book, A Year Full Of Veg – says there are lots of unusual herbs, which you can’t buy in the shops but are easy to grow at home. These herbs give masses of flavour and can be grown even if you haven’t much space.

“In a window box or a series of pots on a doorstep, you can produce delicious flavour-enhancers for countless meals and, unlike newly sown annual salads, neighbourhood cats tend to leave these pungent leaves alone,” says Raven.

Here, she suggests alternative herbs to grow this year and perk up your dishes...

1. MYRTLE

“Commonly used in the Mediterranean, myrtle is a marker for slightly damp ground. It’s a wild shrub, really, and the leaves are incredibly aromatic and deliciously fragrant. There’s a hint of ginger, a little bit of bay, so it’s slightly spicy and aromatic.

“It has a very unusual smell, so might be used in potpourri, but I would use the leaves in a tomato sauce in winter, to give it a warm, aromatic flavour. Use it as you would bay, such as in a stock.

“Its flowers are brilliant for pollinators, then in the autumn it has juniper-like berries. In Turkey, those are used crushed slightly in Turkish delight with rose petals.”

This evergreen herb needs a sheltered spot, ideally by a south facing wall. “You can start it from seed, but I would do it from cuttings,” says Raven

2. ROSEMARY PROSTRATA

“This is used widely in the Mediterranean as a terrace filler and you’ll see it growing wild there, cascading down the side of olive terraces. If you don’t have it on the edge of a wall, it spreads out in a very low, undulating dome about 40cm high.

“There’s also a ‘Green Ginger’ rosemary, which smells and tastes of ginger beer – very popular with cocktail makers.

“You’d want to crush the leaves and use them in a cocktail, or to flavour puddings, either using it to flavour sugar syrup to then drizzle over a cake or when you are preparing your mix, you could step a few stems in the mix and then remove them.”

You could grow it in a hanging basket, lined with coir and moss, as it is very drought resistant. Be careful not to over-water it and if you have heavy soil, add plenty of grit for drainage.

3. GARLIC CHIVES

“All the alliums are fantastic for bees and butterflies, but particularly garlic chives, above, which have a white flower with a flat leaf cross section. It’s fantastic grown in succession with ordinary chives, which come up early but often by May they are looking manky.”

Pick the leaves, and use the edible flowers in savoury dishes such as soups or over a tomato salad, where you want some sharpness, and also on a rice salad. Keep picking the leaves, as they become tougher than ordinary chives.

Grow them in very well drained, poor soil in a sunny spot, perhaps on the edge of a path.

4. CHERVIL

“This British native wildflower is incredibly hardy. It germinates in September, and has a finely cut vivid green leaf, which grows throughout the winter, with totally hardy foliage. In late spring, it throws up umbellifer flowers, but we grow it for winter salads. It’s like a cross between parsley and dill. But don’t cook it, because it has extremely volatile essential oils.

“Sow it in August or September, either in the ground or in seed trays, and it will germinate when it starts to get colder and darker, and will grow through cold with low light levels,” Raven advises.