By our guest blogger – freelance writer, photographer and podcaster Emma Cooper
Spring is finally here, and whether you’re lucky enough to own a Wall Mounted Herb Rack or you have a few pots on the patio or windowsill to fill, it’s time to think about getting this year’s herb garden underway.

Wall Mounted Herb Rack
Choosing your herbs
If you’re new to herb gardening then there are a couple of things you need to bear in mind when you’re choosing which herbs to grow. The first is which ones you use most in your cooking – although it’s fun to experiment with new plants, if you want to really use your herbs then plant your favourites!
It’s also important to know whether your chosen herbs are annuals (for which you need new plants each spring) or perennials (which grow for many years, but need extra care) and whether they like a lot of sun or a lot of water, or both.
Where to grow them
If you have a sunny spot for your herbs then you can grow kitchen favourites such as rosemary, thyme and oregano. These three revel in sunlight and can cope with drier soil as they are adapted to the Mediterranean climate. Let the compost dry out between waterings and be sparing with the plant feed as overly lush growth won’t pack the flavour punch you’re looking for. All of these are perennial herbs, so if you buy a small plant this year it will grow for many years to come, although it will need repotting into a larger container in a couple of years when it starts to look cramped. This herb pot stand is excellent for positioning in a sheltered, sunny spot of your courtyard or patio.

Four Tier Herb Pot Stand
Another sun-lover is basil, but it’s different because it’s an annual herb and also because it enjoys plenty of water. You can sow basil from seed in the spring (but it’s tender, so don’t put the plants outside until the risk of frost has passed), buy a plant from the garden centre or simply pot up one that you’ve bought from the supermarket. Garden Trading’s Pots on Tray are perfect for this and come in 4 lovely colours.

Pots on Tray - Cream
Shade-loving herbs
Many of the leafier herbs thrive in a shadier place. Mint is a fast-growing perennial and comes in lots of different varieties – peppermint and spearmint are the most familiar, and are hardy enough to live outside all year round. Some of the more exotic mints won’t survive a frost, but you can bring them inside for the winter. Mint doesn’t like out-growing its container and so you’ll need to give it a bigger pot each year (in spring or autumn). You can divide a mature mint plant, which is simply a matter of prizing the roots apart into smaller sections – each section will grow into a new plant. It seems brutal, but the plant will survive! Never plant mint in a pot with other herbs as it rapidly takes over.
Indoor herbs
Parsley and coriander are two annual herbs that are very useful in the kitchen. Again, you can grow them from seed or by plants and pot those up. Parsley seed is notoriously slow to germinate, so it’s easier to keep the seeds indoors where you can keep an eye on them. Both of these plants appreciate generous watering, so try not to let them dry out. You can make life really easy for yourself and buy the parsley seeds complete with a herb pot from Garden Trading.

'Grow Your Own' Parsley Pot
Harvest regularly
All herbs benefit from regular harvesting, which stops them from becoming straggly and from flowering. Coriander can flower while your back is turned, which makes the leaves bitter, so when it flowers it’s best to replace the plant with a fresh one, but you can also allow the plant to flower and collect coriander seed to flavour your curries!
Garden Trading have also just added this great Herb Garden Grow It kit into their range, with a variety of seeds including basil, parsley, thyme, and rosemary – everything else you need to get you off to a flying start growing herbs.

Grow It: Herb Garden
Emma Cooper is a freelance garden writer living in Oxfordshire with her husband and two pet chickens. You can read her garden diary and listen to The Alternative Kitchen Garden Show online at http://coopette.com. Her first book, ‘The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z’ was published by Permanent Publications in August 2009.

Alternative Kitchen Garden