Herbs have a glorious ability to assault the senses and add that extra zing to a recipe and there is a happily raised awareness, acceptance and enthusiasm for fresh herbs these days. By Penny Gorrie.
Herbs have a glorious ability to assault the senses and add that extra zing to a recipe and there is a happily raised awareness, acceptance and enthusiasm for fresh herbs these days.
The Pottager garden of old, that formalised and stylized cultivation of herbs for culinary and medical uses, need not be surrounded in mystique ... simplified, it can be accessible to us all. The most popular and easily grown herbs like mint, thyme, basil, coriander and parsley can all be grown on kitchen window sills, in window boxes, in patio pots, in specific herb garden areas close to the house for easy access or even between flowers in flowerbeds. They offer an abundance of aroma and flavour to be cut and to come back again and again.
There are annuals like basil, dill, coriander and borage that can be grown from seed and there are perennials like chives, rosemary, sage, lavender , oregano and marjoram which with a little care thrive year after year. There are root spreaders like all the many varieties of mint and lemon balm that need to be contained to prevent them invading the rest of your herb area and there are landscape herbs such as low-clumping thyme and camomile used in path plantings which when trodden on release their glorious scent underfoot.
Some herbs are used to dissuade unwanted pests from veggie gardens ... rue's pungent smell is unpleasant to cats and planting French and English marigold among your prize veggies keeps away the dreaded carrot root fly.
