Advise please
Sarahlou67
Posts: 24
I would like to create a herb display in an area in my garden. Any ideas please? Thank you..
0
Sarahlou67
Posts: 24
Sarahlou67
Posts: 24
Sarahlou67
Posts: 24
Sarahlou67
Posts: 24
I would like to create a herb display in an area in my garden. Any ideas please? Thank you..
Posts
One thing most herbs love is well-drained soil. What type of soil do you have in the garden? I have clay which doesn't really suit them, so I grow my herbs in raised beds which works wonderfully well.
I grow mine in a raised bed with very good drainage, but my bay and rosemary are in large tubs as both are quite old now.
I grow the following:
Bronze fennel, common mint, chocolate mint (smells and tastes like After eights and is good on icecream), Clary Sage, blue hyssop, several different dwarf lavenders, golden marjoram, variegated sage, welsh onions (like chives but don't go to seed and can be used all year round), bergamot and cat nip for the cats. I also have a germander plant bought from Highgrove (!). Each summer I repeat sow rocket to pick, pulling it out when it bolts. I also grow flat leaved parsley. My thyme refuses to grow in the herb bed and has self seeded at the base of the garage wall in an adjacent bed, where it thrives in very poor dry soil in full sun.
I let all my herbs flower as the bees, hover flies, moths and butterflies love it. They aren't so good for picking then, but I like to see the wildlife.
Just watch out for slugs and snails as they love the rocket! That's the bonus of a raised bed as you can see them easily. I keep a slug pub topped up with cheap beer, and pop them on the edge so they die happy!
I grow herbs which I'm likely to use in cooking...
...chives and garlic chives are grown in a bed with flowers and are perennials.
Crully parsley grown as a biennial, sage, lemon balm and thyme make up the herb bed and are perennials.
Basil and coriander are sown each spring, basil is planted along side toms as it's supposed to improve the taste of the toms and coriander next to a path as I love the small when you brush past it.
Mint is in a pot as it's roots are invasive and rosemary in a pot which I'm intending to train into a one stemmed bush with a ball of rosemary at the top.
I let most flower apart from basil, to attract insects and the coriander seeds can be saved for next year or put in a pepper grinder for cooking.
I also grow bulb fennel and cut the leaves to use in dishes.
Which herbs do you want to grow? Most are quite easy although some can be tricky particularly the mediterranean ones. If you want only one plant it's also cheaper to buy the plant than sow from seed.
I grow most herbs in pots on two tier staging by the back door, except for chives which self seed in fine gravel by the raised veg bed. In pots there are; 3 kinds of mint, 2 pots of oregano, hyssop, summer savoury (divine flavour), weeping rosemary and bay; these last 2 will go into the greenhouse over winter as lost all bays and well established rosemary over last 2/3 years. In the pots also; tarragon, parsley, chervil, (just realised it is getting too much sun, that is why it bolts) and sage. Dill, which is a bit of a battle to germinate, coriander and basil in the G/H. They won't come out into the open until weather is warmer.
Herbs need a lot of sunlight and very airy soil. If yours is not sandy or alkaline,
add grits. Don´t worry about rendering the soil poor, herbs don´t mind; they just
loathe wet feet! Many herbs, once happy, will become invasive. And what´s worth,
they will try and kill more vulnerable neighbouring plants or herbs. I have a small
patch with lemon balm, pennyroyal and golden chamomile: when there were no
boundaries, the second killed the third, and then it was killed by the first! Now I
edged them with bricks in an irregular pattern (to make it less boring than myself;
can´t post pictures, sorry) and added sage, marjoram and coriander (these are not
troublesome, but coriander needs successive sowing).
Here´s a simple sketch (the empty spaces are taken by carrots and lettuce; the
red lines are bricks):
HollieH, what held you back; did you not have space, did you think they were difficult? Please tell
Good for you
I grow my perennial herbs in smallish terracotta pots and move them around the patio. When they get too big, or woody, I have already got cuttings grown on to replace them & then I put the mature flowering plant into the garden. This might be every few years or so. Some thrive in the garden some don't, I only do it as I haven't the heart to compost them. I overwinter the current plants in the greenhouse to protect the pots.
Annuals I grow each year, or buy, and also put on the patio. I did once buy a plastic herb wheel, I found it a waste of money, not deep enough to add compost & grit, and it took up too much space.
I now only grow what I like and use, initially I tried to grow nearly everything I'd ever heard of.
p.s. I do plant Coriander in the garden as I love it and can't get enough of it.