How to Grow herbs
Anyone can grow herbs - you don't even need a garden. Choose the right plant for your plot and it doesn't matter if you have a damp dank basement yard or a balcony on a tower block which has the climate like the Russian steppe, blasted by sun and wind. It's just a matter of finding out what's happy where.
Grow the species which need good drainage and sun in pots if you need to, and move them round to make the most of what light you have. If your soil is a fine sand, do the same with the moisture loving herbs, and leave them in tubs in the shade.
Where to grow
Perennial culinary, medicinal herbs and dye plants can be grown like any other flower, in borders or rockery. Annual herbs like coriander or parsley can be grown in the vegetable garden - remember to leave a few to flower and always incorporate a few plantings to attract beneficial insects. Among the best attractants are members of the umbelliferous and labiate groups: this sounds rather technical but the two are easy to distinguish. An umbelliferous plant is one which carries its flowers in an open umbrella pattern like fennel, caraway and chervil, while all the labiate group, which includes mints, thyme, clary and sage have dead-nettle shaped flowers and square stems.
Many herbs can be used to make a decorative low hedge or edging - try a combination of green and silver cotton lavenders for example - or used to divide up beds in a complicated knotwork pattern if you have time to clip. The best plants for such fiddly structures are mostly the woody Mediterranean species - lavender, hyssop, rosemary and winter savory, which can stand steady pruning, but I have seen a very successful summer display of dwarf edging using scented geraniums.
Herbs tend to fall into two camps - the moisture seekers and the sunlovers.
Mints (which includes the very Xtra strong peppermint flavoured pennyroyal) all appreciate a rich damp soil in shade or dappled sunlight. Their close relatives, the Bergamot family (Monarda) also like soil which doesn't dry out in the summer, and can tolerate a little more sun, as can lemon balm, Melissa officinalis. Lovage, parsley-leafed celery, horseradish and angelica are all in this category too, although they need some sun every day.
Hot, dry sites, with plenty of limestone chippings to accentuate the drainage and low nutrient levels are the ideal conditions for the sunloving species. Thymes, catmints, bay-trees and marjorams all excel in such conditions and produce greater quantities of essential oils in response to prolonged drought. Stroke them softly in hot sunshine and find your fingers sticky with scent.
How to Sow
Basil is best sown in modules or pots
You can grow many different species of herbs from seed. The hardy perennials are all very easy. Sow them in pots or in modules using an open, gritty compost with gentle heat, on a windowsill or in a coldframe in spring. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots and harden them off as they reach four or five true leaves.
Half-hardy annuals like basil and sweet marjoram are best sown like tomatoes, in modules or individual pots. Don't plant them out until all danger of frost is passed - in cold areas they may do better on a sunny windowsill over the summer rather than out in the garden. Give them the hottest, sunniest and most sheltered spot in your garden.
Some umbelliferous plants like dill and angelica resent disturbance, so sow where they are to grow. When the ground warms up a little more you can sow coriander, cumin and anise direct. Parsley always takes a long time to germinate- some stories said it went nine times to the devil before it came up! - but warmth and fresh seed are the key to success.
Making more of your herbs
Lavender takes readily from softwood cuttings
You may find some herbs like your garden so much they attempt take-over bids - borage and evening primrose seedlings can be particularly thuggish. As you yank them up, take comfort from the fact that if borage selfseeds itself freely then your soil has a perfect plant nutrient balance. (Wear a pair of gloves if you have to weed a lot of borage, as their tiny hairs are very irritating.)
Mint, lemon balm and chives form large clumps very easily, and to make a new plant just chop a bit off. The more energetic varieties of thyme can be increased in this way too, as can chamomile and Good King Henry.
If you want a special coloured form, such as golden thyme, you may need to propagate these from cuttings.
Softwood cuttings
Softwood cuttings are best taken early in the morning, when concentrations of hormones in the sap are at their highest. Pinch off a vigorous non-flowering shoot, with about three or four pairs of leaves developed. Trim off the lower leaves, cut the stem cleanly across at the base of the leaf-axil, and insert into a pot of gritty compost. Cover the pot with a plastic bag to keep the air around the cutting humid, and keep the pot out of direct sunlight.
Herbs which take readily from softwood cuttings include catnep, camomile, feverfew, horehound, hyssop, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, sage and savory.
Semi-soft or green wood cuttings
Semi-soft or green wood cuttings are taken a little later in the plant's growth, and this method suits some short-noded species more, such as Wood Sage, Teucrium scorodonia and Caraway Thyme, Thymus herba-barona. Take the cuttings in the same way, but when you take them the shoot should not be so soft as to snap when bent over, but bounce back when released.
Preserving herbs
Picking herbs for storage should be done on a warm sunny day, as soon as the dew has dried, just before the plants flower - that way, their maximum flavour will be kept. Dry leafy herbs hanging upside down in a dark, airy place.
However small your garden, even if it's a window box, herbs make such a difference you should always have at least one kind growing. Their scent, colour and texture offers so much and their ability to grow in the most unpromising conditions mean nobody should be without them.
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