Growing Herbs

A guide to growing herbs and some suggestions for their uses from the Bridge Cottage garden and kitchen.

A herb is a plant, flower or leaf that is grown for culinary, medicinal or beauty uses.

Herbs can be grown in pots, on a windowsill or in the ground, and will thrive in a sunny, sheltered position. They will provide you with delicious and nutritious flavourings for your cooking, for teas and have been used for medicinal uses for centuries.

Herbs can be divided into two groups:

Annuals which should be planted yearly, and include tender herbs such as basil, parsley, marjoram, coriander, borage. Sow basil and coriander every few weeks to give a continuous supply throughout the growing season. Collect seeds before composting plants at the end of the year.

Perennials will, with a little tender loving care, keep giving every year. Just snip off leaves when you need them. These include herbs such as mint, lemon balm, sage, chives, thyme, rosemary, oregano, fennel.

Sow tender herbs such as basil in a greenhouse, or on a sunny windowsill. Basil is a great companion plant to tomatoes both in the saucepan and in the greenhouse or on a windowsill. We’ve found that growing basil in containers is better than in the ground. We are careful not to over water basil and pick by removing the larger leaves. Basil freezes well, as does parsley, and you’ll be very grateful of frozen herbs in the depths of winter.

Mint, loved by us for mint tea, is a spreader – along with its friend, lemon balm, it is best grown in a pot if you don’t want it taking over. We’ve just noticed the mint we brought back from Morocco and planted in the ground is now growing in our farmer’s field. I hope the cows like it!

We grow our lemon balm in a recycled tyre and find this help to prevent the spread. As well as mint sauce to go with roast lamb, mint is super in a Taboulleh  in raita with curry, or combined with its friends lemon balm and nettles, in a refreshing herbal tea. There are lots of varieties of mint – we love chocolate mint which smells of After Eights.

Thyme is a wonderful herb for use in cooking, added to herb salt, and saved for medicinal uses. Whenever the family have a sore throat, I pipe up ‘thyme tea’ and brew it with honey for sore throats and colds. It is easy to grow and will do well in pots of in the ground. There are lots of varieties, and a container display of different thymes can be very pretty.

Chives are really easy to grow and will come back year after year. They are a good container herb if space is tight. We once grew chives in a recycled Vax! Snip a few chives to go into a potato salad, and don’t forget to pickle the flower heads – delicious!

Rosemary is another perennial herb to grown and this one seems to like the sunny position we’ve given it against a west-facing wall. It’s July as I write this, and on Gardener’s World last week, Monty Don told us it was time to take rosemary cuttings, so that’s a job for the weekend, and I’ll write a piece about that in the next couple of days.

• How to take Rosemary Cuttings by Gardener’s World.

Parsley is slow to germinate – I had read that you should pee on it to help germination, though I’ve never done it! Parsley should be grown annually, although a late sowing will overwinter in the greenhouse and provide another flush before going to seed in Spring.

Sage will keep growing, and benefits from being pruned in the Spring. As its stems are hollow, avoid cutting it back in winter, or the cold with travel down the stem and kill the plant. Sage is wonderful made as a tea and can help with menopausal hot flushes. It is also excellent for coughs and respiratory infections. We cook a sage and squash risotto in the autumn when squash are in season. Sage is a good herb to dry for use over winter, or pop into bags in the freezer. Sage and onion stuffing for chicken tastes so much better when it’s homemade, rather than from a packet!

Talking of seeds, don’t forget to collect your seeds, not only for growing herbs the following year but to use for cooking and tea. I adore fennel seeds any collect from this plant every year, keeping a jar handy for fennel tea and cooking. I have been told that adding fennel seeds to dishes with beans or lentils can help prevent excess flatulence!

Borage is a wonderful plant to grow and can be added to tea or strewn amongst salad leaves. Borage for bravery! It is an annual, although will self-seed, so only grow it where you are prepared for it to pop up every year. Borage is a great plant for adding to the comfrey feed bucket along with nettles, to provide a nutrient-rich feed for fruiting plants and hanging baskets – see the post on Making Comfrey Feed.

Other posts you might enjoy if you are growing herbs:

• Make your own Herbal Tea
• Drying Herbs
• Making Herb Salt
• Making Herb & Floral Vinegars

 

 

 

 

 

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You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

• Sustainable Living
• The Bridge Cottage Garden
• The Bridge Cottage Kitchen
• Month by Month

Many thanks for reading.

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