Growing and cooking Herbs

HERBS FROM GARDEN TO KITCHEN

There is always room in a garden or on the allotment for a few herbs. Although they are grown for culinary uses in the kitchen, many of them such as sage, lavender, thyme and rosemary are quite ornamental and very attractive in their own right. Most do not grow very big so you do not need a lot of space to grow a decent range. There is a resurgence of interest in cooking at the moment with emphasis on easily prepared meals that cook quickly as many people do not have time to spend hours in the kitchen preparing meals. The correct use of herbs adds a higher level of flavours to enhance many foods, reducing the need for salt. Most herbs can be harvested and dried for storage.

Many herbs have a medicinal use such as Aloe vera where the jelly like sap is used for burns, insect bites and other skin problems. Others are useful against colds, anxiety or are very good for your health. Parsley is full of iron and vitamins A, C and E.

Some are very fragrant and grown to enjoy the smells or used in potpourri. Rosemary, lavender, mint and thyme all have wonderful scents, but avoid the curry plant at all costs as the very strong smell is not very pleasant.

There are very many herbs in use, for medicinal purposes, for cooking, for extraction of essential oils or just because they are attractive. I will run over a few of my favourites grown for the kitchen.

Rosemary is top of my list as I just love the smell on my hands and it adds a fantastic flavour to roasted lamb, pork and chicken dishes, and a very useful tasty addition to pasta dishes.

Very easy to grow preferring a dry sunny soil, but can die out in a severe winter.

 

Mint comes in many different types including applemint, peppermint, spearmint and even eau de cologne. Mint sauce with lamb is hard to beat, but mint goes very well with new potatoes and freshly harvested garden peas. Easy to grow but can become invasive though is not too difficult to control. It imparts a lovely smell on your hands when crushed.

Thyme is a great low growing ground cover plant useful in the rock garden. Thyme is used in meat stews, roast chicken dishes and in ham, vegetable and chicken soups. It gets trimmed periodically as we cut bits off for flavouring chutneys and stews.

Chives is another very easy to grow plant that quickly multiplies up as clumps, and it can be used in   tuna mayonnaise, omelettes and salads where it imparts a mild onion flavour. Cut into small pieces, it is a very useful garnish in soups, egg and cheese dishes.

Basil is treated as an annual and is not very hardy so has to be pot grown on a sunny windowsill. It is used in pesto and goes very well in all tomato dishes. Remove flowers as they appear as it is the leaves that are used in the kitchen.

Sage has attractive soft green pungent leaves used for adding flavour to stuffing for meat dishes, particularly pork. It is an attractive garden plant and easy to grow. It prefers a well drained soil with a sunny aspect.

Lemon balm also needs a well drained soil in a sunny spot. It is used steeped to make healthy calming teas, flavoured ice cream and stuffing for poultry.

Bay is best grown in a pot and can last for years though a hard frost will kill it. Use a few whole leaves in soups, when cooking rice, in casseroles, stews and marinades. Do remember to remove the bay leaves before serving.

Lavender is a favourite for dry sunny places and is great for attracting bees in mid to late summer when it is covered with deep purple flowers. It has a great scent and its flowers are used to extract scented essential oils.

Parsley is grown from seed as an easy to grow annual. It is often an added ingredient in potato and leek and Scotch broth soups.

Coriander is a hot spicy herb very useful in curries, Indian and Mexican dishes. It grows easy from seed and will come up every year but prefers a dry sunny spot. Use both the leaves and seeds after you harvest them and dry them off for storing.

Plant of the week

 

Azalea Gibraltar has large fiery orange flowers coming into bloom at the end of May and into June. This deciduous azalea will grow to about five feet. It is very reliable and easy to grow, so long as you give it an acidic soil, so mix plenty of leaf mould into the top nine inches of soil before planting. It likes a moist but well drained soil in a sunny or dappled shade location, and do not let it dry out during the summer as it has shallow fibrous roots. It benefits from an annual mulch in winter of more leaf mould or ericaceous compost, to maintain the acid soil and retain moisture.

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PLANTING THE SUMMER FLOWERS

PLANTING THE SUMMER FLOWERS

Now that the spring flowers have finished we can concentrate on planting the summer flowers in our tubs, pots, hanging baskets and borders. Summer bedding plants are a mixture of annuals, and perennials which we treat like annuals.

Alyssum, Lobelia, Petunias, salvias, Livingston Daisies, Star of the Veldt are sown each spring grown on, planted out then at the end of summer when they have finished flowering we dig them up and put them on the compost heap.

However there are quite a few perennials such as geraniums, Busy Lizzies, fuchsias and begonias which we can retain over winter to grow and flower again every summer.

Many of these plants are available quite cheaply from garden centres as small plug plants which are perfect for potting up into cellular trays, then growing on for a few weeks before planting out as bigger stronger plants.

Most of these will now be hardened off outdoors and be ready for planting. Many plants have been affected by the recent cold weather which held back growth a wee bit, and some may have been affected if you planted out too early as the cold spell in April extended well into May. However there is still plenty available so planting can now be completed in the hope that our unpredictable weather will not produce a late frost to catch us unawares.

Hanging baskets

My baskets are lined with a cut to shape old compost bag with the black side on the outside. I don’t put in any drainage holes in the bottom as I cut slits for plants to grow in the side of the basket. As these grow they will hopefully cover the whole basket with foliage and flowers.  Petunias, trailing lobelia, Impatiens (Busy Lizzie) and the occasional geranium are my favourites for baskets, though I usually try to have at least one trailing fuchsia with Swingtime high on the list. This red and white double  never lets you down.

Tubs and pots

This year I am having geraniums as my main display supplemented with petunias and impatiens at the edges to trail over. I have kept my own selection of four geraniums for years as I have found the perfect red, cerise pink, salmon and white. I usually select the dark blue petunia for patios and near entrances as it has a gorgeous scent. I never understand why the seed producers don’t promote this scent in their blue petunias as it is the main reason why I always seek out this colour of petunia.

Lobelia is also an excellent blue flower that is more reliable if we get a poor summer as petunias really need plenty of sunny weather to produce their best show. French marigolds and Tagetes provide great yellow colours and if you need extra tall plants the African marigolds are hard to beat.

Sometimes I use the strongest of my tuberous begonias for the largest tubs as they can make a dazzling display of intense colour.

Flower beds and borders

However this year I am again keeping my begonias for the main large flower bed at the front of the house as last year they were brilliant and the weather did not give us the best summer. I will add a bit of height in the bed with a deep planting of about twenty mixed gladioli. They will not need staking as the deep planting will keep the stems upright and supported.

Other bare soil areas will be planted with Shirley poppies which were sown a few weeks ago in cellular trays. I have a few areas that are very sunny and a bit dry. These will be planted up with Star of the Veldt and Livingston daisies which both revel in hot sunny places.

Californian poppies and the double opium poppy Papaver somniferum have naturalised in a few areas of the garden and are allowed to grow and flower as long as they don’t spread too far. They have both appeared as windborne seeds, but as they are very colourful they have been allowed to spread in a few areas.

Plant of the week

Hardy Ice Plant Delosperma cooperi is a perennial mesembryanthemum with intense purple flowers in mid summer. It comes from South Africa where it is known as the Pink Carpet and Trailing Ice Plant. A yellow form Delosperma nubigenum, the yellow ice plant, flowers in early summer. These succulent ground cover plants need full sun and will grow in very dry soils. I planted one in the top of a seven foot high very dry south facing wall and gave it just enough water to keep it growing to get it established. It just loves it. Shoots of the yellow ice plant were stuck in cracks in the middle of the wall where they rooted and have now become established.

Delosperma naturally produce dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogenic drug, but poses no problem to gardeners. The garden is full of plants that contain all sorts of poisons, but as most people are unaware of them we just grow them and enjoy the flowers.

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LATE SPRING FLOWERS

LATE SPRING FLOWERS

The summer sunshine may be a wee bit hard to find this year, (a bit like the last two years) but on those days when it does put in an appearance you get the chance to wander around the garden and marvel at those flowering plants that just refuse to get washed out.

There are a host of shrubs and herbaceous plants all in flower at present. Some should have flowered weeks ago but got delayed by the cool wet climate, but now it is their day.

Herbaceous plants and bulbs

Doronicum is an early flowering herbaceous plant. It likes a bit of sunshine so this year the clump is not at its best, but the bright yellow star shaped flowers blend in perfectly with the drifts of bluebells now carpeting the ground under my apple trees. They have just finished flowering and promise a great crop if only the summer returns. However the apple tree foliage is still quite light so there is plenty dappled sunlight reaching the bluebells. They are a beautiful site covering the ground in my orchard (four trees, but ten varieties) and help to reduce vigour in the apple trees. They are very easy to grow and quickly multiply by seed dispersal, though you can dig up and divide clumps of bulbs any time after flowering. Once you have a good bluebell drift they need controlling as the seed grows prolifically and soon becomes invasive so remove all seedheads before they spread.

Wood spurge is another herbaceous plant flowering now. The best one is Euphorbia griffithii Fireglow. It has bright red flowering bracts and is a great partner to the lower growing lemon yellow Euphorbia polychroma. They are both happy in dappled shade in a deciduous woodland fringe and do not mind a dry soil. Another spurge is the favourite Christmas houseplant Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). However they all have a poisonous latex (white sap) that exudes easily with any damage to the stem. This is an irritant and can cause inflammation, so wash immediately if any gets onto your skin.

Flowering Shrubs

The Azaleas have always been the main show at this time of year, though there are many Rhododendrons still in flower. There are literally hundreds of different varieties to choose from in every colour. Some of the taller azaleas are deciduous and have a wonderful scent such as Azalea lutea a bright yellow variety and Azalea Gibralter is a fiery orange colour. Down at ground level and perfect for weed smothering ground cover are the dwarf Japanese evergreen azaleas. These are quite cheap to buy as small plants and they soon grow larger. They flower prolifically.

Azaleas need moisture retentive soil rich in organic matter such as well rotted leafmold, but the soil also needs good drainage so there is no standing water at their feet. Do not use any fertiliser as this may scorch the young tender leaves.

Ceanothus commonly known as the Californian Lilac (but is not related to the lilac) smothers itself in Blue flowers in mid May. They prefer a sunny sheltered spot to be at their best and an annual mulch of compost in winter will keep them well fed. They do not need any pruning unless they get too tall as they can grow up to ten feet tall.

Lilacs are another tall shrub or small tree flowering profusely in mid May. They are easy to grow, not fussy about soil and some varieties have a terrific scent. Mme. Lemoine is the best white and Michel Buchner a lovely warm light purple.

Cistus, known as the rock rose and sun rose will grow on poor dry soil full of stones where drainage is perfect and prefers full sun to flower at its best. It comes from the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean area. It only grows a few feet tall and flowers for only a short time, but it can really put on a bold display of flowers in a range of pink shades. Cistus Silver Pink and Cistus purpureus are both good varieties.

Broom and gorse are represented in the garden with several yellow to white flowered shrubs. Genista hispanica, Spanish gorse, Genista Lydia, a broom and Cytisus praecox, another broom all make a bold display if given a poor dry soil in a sunny location.

Plant of the week

Himalayan Blue Poppies known botanically as Meconopsis betonicifolia has a reputation of being hard to grow, especially if you grow from seeds, but it just needs someone to understand its needs, then it is a happy plant.

Sow freshly gathered seed in autumn in cellular trays and leave outdoors all winter. Keep the compost moist and protect it from birds, slugs and mice. Germination takes place in April. Grow them on and pot up after a couple of months. Plant out in autumn into a moist shady woodland border that gets dappled sunlight. Many plants will then flower the following May.

The deep sky blue flowers blowing gently in a breeze are a wonderful sight.

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Sowing the Seeds

PUMPKINS AND COURGETTES

The cucumber family have given us pumpkins, courgettes, marrows, melons, gourds and squashes as well as cucumbers. Pumpkins are the perfect plant to let your kids loose on to stimulate an interest in gardening from a young age. They are very easy to grow and kids just love to see them grow huge as they give them a fortnightly feed, or weekly if you want a whopper. They really do respond to feeding and watering and soil rich in humus.

Then at harvesting just before Halloween the kids will get the lantern and the adults will get the flesh for soups and seeds for roasting or next years crop.

Pumpkins can be stored in a cool place and keep for many months. We are using our last one in mid May and it is still perfect. However courgettes are the summer favourite as they don’t store fresh, though you can store them once you have cooked up some soup. They are both very healthy vegetables high in vitamin A, C and E and full of minerals, fibre and pumpkins high in beta-carotene. Courgettes combined with spinach make a lovely light summer soup for healthy slimmers and pumpkins with added sweet potato, carrots, onion, garlic and nutmeg makes a warmer winter soup. Pick all courgettes when about six inches long and use within three days. If some grow faster than you can pick and use, they can still be used for summer soup. Use the smaller ones for stir frying, grills, baked, barbecued and combined with aubergine and tomatoes for ratatouille. This is always relevant in late summer when both courgettes and home grown tomatoes are at glut levels.

 

Growing

I sow my seed the last week in April in single cells in a tray on a sunny windowsill, then pot up into individual pots just when the first true leaf is forming. Grow on for a couple of weeks then harden off by mid May for planting out at the end of the month.

They both enjoy similar growing conditions. I grow them on land heavily manured or composted in winter, then in May when all risk of frost has gone I add extra compost to each planting area to increase the water retaining properties and create soil with a high humus content. Add a good dressing of growmore fertiliser then plant out about three feet apart.

Keep them weeded, watered and fed during the growing season.

Pumpkin shoots can grow fast and extend rapidly all over the place so prune them once they have produced two to three fruit per plant. You can get more pumpkins per plant if the land adjacent has been cleared from early potatoes, onions or broad beans and you let the long shoots take over the space, but you will need to keep them fed and watered. However if you are after that huge pumpkin that everyone loves to achieve then only allow one or two fruit per plant and really give it some serious feeding. Stop feeding in late summer to help ripen up the fruit and put some straw or bark chips under the fruit to keep them clean. After cutting at harvest time, wash any soil off the pumpkins before storing them indoors in a cool airy room.

If you have found a good reliable variety you can keep the seed for the next year, but store it well out of the reach of mice which just love a wee nibble over winter.

Squashes and marrows are grown very similar to pumpkins and come in a range of shapes and colours and it is always interesting to try something different each year.

Plant of the week

Red geraniums are a show winner when it comes to impact of colour in the garden in summer. I grow mine from cuttings overwintered on a window sill every year, and potted up as they grow. They will flower all winter (if you let them), then by early May they are ready for tubs, hanging baskets and flower beds. If you grow them strongly it is possible to produce ten plants from one cutting taken in September, then two months later it will have rooted and grown so remove the tip and use it as the next cutting. Repeat this process till April, but do not allow them to flower to keep their vigour for growing.

Painting of the Month

Sunset on the River Yare is one of my favourite oil paintings. The idea came from a holiday on the Broads a few years ago when we took an evening boat trip up the River Yare from Great Yarmouth. Other boats and the windmill were illuminated by the low sun as it was setting. I knew it would make an excellent painting.

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