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CREATE A HERB GARDEN
With the prospect of a long hot summer and the hosepipe bans that will surely follow, many gardeners may be reluctant to grow thirsty edibles - but warm, dry weather is well suited to growing herbs.
With the prospect of a long hot summer and the hosepipe bans that will surely follow, many gardeners may be reluctant to grow thirsty edibles - but warm, dry weather is well suited to growing herbs.
Many herbs thrive in sunnier climates including thyme, rosemary and basil, which historically hasnt grown very well in this country because our summers have been too cool.
Mint grows virtually anywhere, but if you are creating a herb garden, grow it in a pot or it will invade everything else in its path.
Perennial herbs include rosemary, sage and bay. Chives, sorrel, fennel and mint should also come up year after year.
Other popular herbs are annuals and need to be raised from seed each year, including parsley, basil, dill, coriander, chervil and borage. These are best germinated in a greenhouse in spring.
The majority of herbs thrive in sunny, sheltered spots so bear that in mind when you are planning your site.
If you only have a semi-shaded spot available, try growing scented lemon balm, which can be used to flavour sauces for chicken and fish, lovage, a hardy perennial which has a flavour similar to celery and angelica, a giant herb growing to several metres which can be used to flavour cakes and cooked fruit.
But you can just as easily add some herbs to your border to add colour and texture, including clumps of chives, which produce pretty purple flower balls and sage, with its subtle leaf colours.
Rock gardens, with gritty, well-drained soil, are also ideal for planting low-growing herbs such as thyme, of which there are endless varieties, many of which have variegated leaves and produce small flowers in summer.
When designing your herb garden, remember that prostrate varieties such as Corsican mint, many thymes and marjorams form mats of pretty foliage to cascade over edges and fill gaps in paving.
Rosemary, lavender and hyssop are all bushy perennials which will make neat dwarf hedges for framing or dividing beds.
Basil, which tastes so much better if you grow it yourself than if you buy it from the supermarket, is a tender annual used in much Mediterranean cooking - and I dont find it particularly easy to grow. Its best sown into seed trays or modules in a greenhouse and then hardened off and transplanted into a sheltered, sunny spot when all danger of frost is past. It should be watered whenever dry and the growing tips pinched out regularly to encourage bushy growth and delay flowering.
Sweet basil and bush basil are the common types grown, but you could also try cinnamon basil, anise basil and lemon basil.
Flat-leaf parsley is much more popular these days than the curly-leaf variety because of its more intense flavour. A leafy biennial, usually grown as an annual, it can be sown thinly outdoors in rich, moist soil in late spring and again in late summer for succession over winter. Try Giant Italian for good flavour.
If you grow it as a biennial, in its second year it sends up flowering stems and produces seed. To make sure you have parsley for cutting, sow it in succession every year. When the plants go to seed, dig them up and use the space for other herbs.
BEST OF THE BUNCH - Foxglove
With the trends in gardening veering towards more traditional plants, we will surely be seeing a return in popularity of the foxglove (Digitalis), an imposing perennial or biennial, producing tall spires of funnel-shaped flowers in different shades in early summer. Good varieties include D. purpurea, which grows to 6ft (2m) and is great
towards the back of an informal border.
For a later bloom go for D. x mertonensis, which grows to around 3ft (90cm), producing crushed strawberry-coloured summer flowers above attractive veiny leaves. Foxgloves tolerate most soils, preferably in partial shade and look as good in woodland borders as they do in cottage gardens.
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