Grow Yourself a Herb Garden

Kitchen gardens are an increasingly popular way to save money and grow healthy vegetables and fruit. However, even for those who don’t have time to be sowing in, hoeing out and digging up a winter’s supply of spuds, a herb garden will add flavour and variety to the cooking pot. Here’s our tips on growing your own herbs.

Ground or Pots?

The amount of space you devote to your herb garden will depend on the quantity of herbs you are likely to need. Most recipes only call for a sprinkling of herbs, so one or two large pots with a few different herbal plants is sufficient for your thyme and rosemary to regrow faster than you can use it. However, if you are planning on making your own pesto – you will probably want to plant a whole row of basil.

Seed or Seedling?

At this time of year, when there is little danger of a frost, you can sow a lot of herbs straight into the earth as seeds. Buying seedlings is more expensive, but they are hardier. If you’ve got some gardening expertise, you may even be able to keep a supermarket ‘living herb’ pot alive for more than a week.

Which Herbs?

You should plant herbs that you are going to use – so choose ones that you like the taste of. There’s no point growing sorrel and lovage if you don’t like that aniseed taste. Four basics are, like the Simon and Garfunkel album: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme – these are all easy to grow in the UK climate and distinct in flavour. Basil is known as the king of herbs because of its indomitable flavour.

Your Herb Garden

Choosing an area of your garden to grow herbs will provide pretty flowers and heavenly scents. If you are pushed for space, a couple of free-draining pots or boxes on a sunny patio will provide a lovely growing environment for many varieties of herbs.

If you are thinking of redesigning your garden to include space for growing your own herbs, remember that Knights offer a full landscaping service. We can do all the heavy lifting, digging and reshaping and leave you with a low maintenance garden that you will be able to enjoy for years to come. For more information, call us on 01603 360548 or email enquiries@knightslandscaping.co.uk.

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