Make the Most of  Supermarket Herbs

The cheapest herb plants available these days are often from your local supermarket. They're sold in pots of what are basically overgrown, over crowded plants that should have been pricked out long ago. This doesn't matter of course if you're going to pick all of the leaves and throw the rest away.

With a little bit of effort however it is possible to make a pot of herbs last for months on end and keep a fresh supply on the kitchen windowsill all summer for the price of one pot.

Supermarket pots are fine, but its not the same as popping out to the garden to cut herbs from a long lasting bush that you've nurtured.

Many herbs can be grown easily and quickly in a small space. But don't forget about the many useful perennial herbs that take no trouble to grow, look wonderful and add a huge amount to the potential of the kitchen.

Even the largest perennial herbs can be grown in a small garden because they tend to do their growing up rather than out and the nature of a herbaceous perennial is that it can be dug up each winter, chopped up, reduced, divided or merely replanted without showing the slightest sign of distress the following April when it starts to grow again.

Don't bother with those titchy little "herb wheels" that have four or more compartments to grow the herbs in, they produce about enough for the occasional meal for one. If you want to grow them in a "herb container" make it big, at least 3 feet square, raised above the patio so that you can sit on the edge and smell the herbs as you brush against them

    Mint  

Mint is something of an exception as it "grows like a bugger" as my granddad so eloquently put it. It has a habit of spreading into every nook and cranny once it gets going. The customary advice is to plant it in a bottomless bucket sunk into the ground. 

I've never tried this but quite honestly can't see it working too well. Mint spreads admirably over surfaces, a wind battered stem will root where it touches the ground and shallow roots will soon creep over the bucket rim. I also have faith in the ability of mint to grow down under the bottom rim of the bucket and escape that way.

Better to grow it in a (large) container or curb its enthusiasm by planting it in a difficult spot in the garden. Where other plants may die or sulk miserably, mint will be somewhat chastised but soldier on regardless. 

There are many types of mint to try, applemint ( Mentha suaveolens ) and spearmint ( Mentha spicata ) are the most useful for everyday purposes. Have peppermint ( Mentha x piperita ), if you want to make peppermint tea. There are lots of other types if you have the space such as pineapple mint, lemon mint, basil mint, eau de cologne mint, curly mint and mountain mint.

    Fennel ( Foeniculum vulgare )

is a Mediterranean herb that naturally seeds itself in very dry, sunny spots in poor soil, popping up in gravel paths, between bricks and cobbles and even on walls. The  leaves can be laid over a fish before grilling or baking, but the plants real herby brilliance is from its seeds. These are produced in great abundance in late summer after the mass of flowers are over.  Florence fennel used as a vegetable is a different thing altogether (though bred from the herb).

    Oregano

is another really easy to grow herb. Put it in a sunny spot and it almost can't help itself to grow - which is always an admirable quality in a plant that you intend to cut bits off on a regular basis. 

I love oregano leaves in a mixed green salad along with a generous helping of basil. I'm not a great fan of frilly, bitter, funny colored lettuces in a green salad, but these two leaves with spinach, or watercress leaves or even a traditional (not iceberg!) lettuce and a nice dressing and I'm as close to going vegetarian as I'm likely to get.

Later in the summer oregano produces masses of pretty pink flowers that are adored by bees and butterflies, so as far as I'm concerned it's a star plant.