Organic Gardening Magazine

Your complete guide to gardening - naturally!

Potty about herbs

Toby Buckland offers some top tips so that fresh herbs are never far away when you need them in the kitchen.

I wasn’t much of a cook when I was younger. My wife Lisa loves to tease me about my experimental phase, the highlight of which was spaghetti flavoured with lemon curd. But when we started a family I suddenly discovered the knack. The day after our first son Henry was born I made a Sunday roast and haven’t looked back since. My own father has always been a great cook so maybe I just wanted to fill our house with the homely scents I remember from when I was a boy – hearty roasts, freshly baked cakes and casseroles. And if you cook you need fresh herbs. Rosemary for lamb and bacon, thyme for beef and tarragon and oregano for chicken and omelettes. Consequently I’ve always had a patch of herbs outside my kitchen door that I rush out and gather before the peas boil over or the frying pan catches fire.

With no open soil near the house, the only way of having herbs in easy reach was to plant up pots, or, as I’ve done here, baskets taken from an old vegetable rack. I got the rack second-hand from a village jumble sale. It was chosen for its attractive grey-metal sides and £5 price. While I can’t say where to buy an exact replica window-boxes would work just as well.

‘Herbs’ aren’t from a single plant family so don’t all thrive in the same growing conditions. Some, such as chervil and parsley, perform best in moist shade during the summer and sun during winter while sun-loving thyme and rosemary taste best when grown in full sun and when kept on the dry-side through winter.

Having three or four different baskets as opposed to one giant pot allows the herbs to be grouped together according to their foibles be they sun, shade or moisture. Another thing I like about the baskets is that they’re easily moved to the greenhouse to protect tender types such as French tarragon from the frost and to raise herbs from seed such as basil and coriander during summer. When the weather suits and when plants are large enough to pick, back they go outside the kitchen door.

I’ve planted one of my baskets with the woody sun-lovers rosemary and thyme, two with annuals (sun and shade) and one with herbaceous marjoram and sage.

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