Herb Gardens

Published on: July 24, 2008

by Diana Greenwood Mead

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This week Diana answers two questions on the continually popular topic of starting a herb garden. The first question is from Paula Jandura who writes:
Dear Diana, I'd love to have an herb garden, but where do I begin? What are the best herbs to plant and when do I plant them? Do they last year round and are they best in pots or in the ground?

Quite a big subject Paula, covering all those useful plants that scent our food, perfume our drinks and keep the moths away from our cupboards, so I'll try and set out some general guidelines ...

Most people think of the basicswhen they want to grow herbs – I have Parsley, several varieties of Mint, Chives, different types of Thyme, Sage, Bay, French Tarragon, Lavender, Basil, Rosemary and Garlic growing in pots in my backyard - and they are good examples as together they encompass the lifestyles of the various types of herbs.
Of course there are many more, but these are the basics and they all fall into one of two types of herbs.

Herbs come from either hot stony hillsides or shady woodland areas, and all you need to work out is which is which. Generally, grey narrow leaved plants (Rosemary, Lavender) come from hot areas, so they love sun while the plants with big soft green leaves (Sage, Mint and Chives for example), like more shade from a hot midday sun.

Plant the ones you like from seed, or buy small plants from your local plant store, put them into clay or recyclable pots no more than twice the size they’re in, and watch them grow.

One of the nice things about growing plants is that it is not an exact science and in many ways you can rely on the plant to tell you how it is doing.
If a herb plant is happy it will grow well and if not, you need to change its site or watering until it smiles at you and starts romping away. One thing to be aware of – some happy herbs are real thugs – every gardener knows about Mint trying to take over the world, but several others are quite as bad – Horseradish and Feverfew to name a couple more.

Always think of herbs as a crop - harvest them, cutting leaves or stems from about one third of the plant, and use or freeze them.

Do keep in mind that fresh herbs have the best taste, so use what you harvest if you can and only store if you must. Finally, most herbs are fairly short lived so try taking cuttings for the next year (for instance Basil will root amazingly quickly in a glass of water) or save seed from the ones that grow a good seed head.

The second question for Diana came from Premila who is interested in growing Indian Curry Leaves:
Dear Diana, I would like to plant Indian Curry Leaves in my garden, but I am wondering if it will die during winter?

Hi Premila
Your enquiry about curry leaves nearly foxed me so I asked my neighbour Sue who also loves her garden, and has a very good library. Curry Leaves – 'Murraya koenigii' (the botanical name in case you need it) – is the everyday name of a medium sized shrub originating in the Far East and grown in profusion in the south of India, where it is much used in cooking, so I think it is probably fairly tender.

If there are frosts or continuing cold weather where you live, then you will, I think, need to grow it in a big pot and bring the pot into somewhere light and cool in the winter. If where you live is warm all year round it could be a very good grower.

Do try and grow some and let us know how it does!
Happy Horticulture,
Diana