Whether you’re growing your own or buying those handy herb pots from the supermarket, keeping them flourishing means less waste, fewer trips to the shop, and that feeling of farm-to-table fulfilment that comes with cooking something you have nurtured. Here are a few tips to keep herbs alive and kicking with flavour.
Perfect parsley
Flat parsley can be planted in your garden in early spring and if looked after will keep giving you wonderful leaves for harvest well into the autumn (writes Joe Cottingham). Plant in a well dug and manured bed or in a compost-filled pot. Make sure to keep the soil moist without overwatering. When you come to harvest take the most prominent leaves, being careful to not cut too low as you want to protect the smaller leaves (the growth point) which will be your future harvests. Pests to look at for: slugs, caterpillars and aphids.
Repot to regrow
Supermarkets often crowd several small plants into one pot to give a look of fullness. In the long term, this means no individual plant can reach its full potential. Repot your herbs into slightly bigger pots with drainage holes and saucers, or separate crowded plants – this is especially common with shop-bought basil – into two pots.