Happy, Healthy Herbs
Simon with his finished herb planter.
Pretty much the most popular (and useful) thing you can be growing right now! We think herbs are one of the easiest and most satisfying plants to grow because, not only do they look great, but you can also use them to make great-tasting meals, drinks and cakes. Growing your own herbs will save you so much money too, as they are much better value than cut bunches available in the supermarket. If you’re a beginner or are wanting to brush up on your gardening skills, read this handy guide that our expert, Simon Harpin, has put together to help you create your own happy, healthy, herb garden.
Preparation is key
A lot of our customers automatically reach for the multi-purpose compost when it comes to any kind of planting. While it won’t do any harm, we recommed instead using John Innes No.3 mature plant compost - the nutrients it provides are better suited to the shrubby nature of herbs. We suggest planting your herbs in a container, because it makes them easier to pick and you can leave by your back door; so choose yourself a nice pot. You can make herb borders easily too, but pots help you to keep them in a handy spot and also help prevent the more vigorous herbs from getting too leggy. Mix some water retaining gel crystals and some miracle-gro soluble plant food in with your compost. Containers can leave plants at risk of drying out or with not enough nutrients, so doing this will encourage lots of healthy growth for the next twelve months. You want to mix equal parts water retaining gel to fertiliser. There’s no hard and fast rule for how much to put in, although we’d recommed three scoops of each for a 12” pot diameter, four for a 14” and five for 16” or more. Mix it in well using a trowel- or your hands (it’s definitely more fun this way!).
Choose Wisely
A common, and surprising, mistake some of our customers make is panic-choosing herbs - this means they don’t actually grow ones they like to eat! Tempting as it can be to get carried away by our lovely range of herbs (it’s hard for us too!), try to think in advance about what you like cooking, and which herbs will be most useful to you - this will help you to get the best out of your herb garden. Once you know what you need, then comes the fun bit. Come in and choose what you fancy, we have lots of different varieties of each type of herb, so choose according to your taste preference - putting your nose in and smelling them is a really good way to help you decide. You can also choose according to colour, this will give you a very attractive herb planter as well as a tasty one! If you aren’t sure what you need you can also order our herb selection box online; we’ve compiled the most popular herbs used in cooking to give you a great starter kit if you’re finding it hard to decide.
Location, Location, Location
Positioning yoru plants is key, both in your pot and in your garden. When you put your herbs in the container make sure to place taller ones (such as sage, rosemary and fennell) towards the back, with smaller ones nearer the front. This makes it look elegant and polished, especially if you can contrast colours next to each other too. Make a small hole with your trowel and press in firmly, before covering back up with the compost- you want the compost to be just above the base of the stem. Water in well. Secondly, leave your planter in a position which is at least partially sunny, and quite sheltered. The advantage of a pot is that you can always drag it nearer your BBQ or kitchen whilst your cooking, then move it back! Herbs are very suited to our climate so you won’t need to worry about too much watering or maintenence, especially once you have used water retaining gels, but make sure that they don’t dry out if we get a sunny spell. A thorough soaking once or twice a week should be sufficient in hot weather.
And finally……
We have three hacks to make you a real herb-growing pro:
NEVER put mint in a pot with other herbs. This is because mint is a very vigorous grower. This is great for you, but less so for other plants. Put in a container of its own, or if you really do use a lot, let it run wild in a border.
Although it’s tempting, instagrammable and recommended by TV chefs- try and refrain from growing your herbs on a windowsill if you have space outside. Outside they can get much, much more light and rainwater, which is better for them than tap water. It is possible to grow herbs inside if you have no other option, as they are very tolerant plants, but to get truly healthy, long-lived plants you are much better keeping them outside.
Eat them! By picking and eating your herbs you’re actually like a grazing animal. This keeps the herbs from getting leggy and going to seed and is actually really good for keeping them leafy rather than woody. So , go ahead and enjoy!