Herb growing guide

boragejohnson · March 2023

Good evening. I'm looking for a decent guide book (old skool I know) on choosing and growing herbs outdoors - I remember an episode of GW with Monty explaining that most need sharp drainage, but some need very few nutrients, whilst others need a lot of feeding. Being a novice I want to get off to the right start.

I've undertaken a couple of hours of research but there doesn't seem to be a stand out guide - though the DK guide does seem particularly enticing. Any recommendations?

wild edges · March 2023

The kitchen gardener book by Titchmarsh has a great section on herbs. I'm not normally a big fan of his but that book is excellent and has been very helpful.

Busy-Lizzie · March 2023

Jekka McVicar is a herb expert and has written books about herbs.

bédé · March 2023

Jekka McVicar. Even Surrey Libraries has a copy.

Fairygirl · March 2023

Have you tried asking on the forum @boragejohnson? If you know which ones you want to grow, you'll get a lot of help as to the conditions they need.

Certainly - many [most] of them need sun and sharp drainage, but it's also about general climate and conditions. Many of them don't survive here where I am without winter protection, or taking cuttings as back up etc.

boragejohnson · March 2023

Thanks folks - re Jekka, just jogged my memory that she did a good article on Titchmarsh's sunday show not so long ago - I'll need to look into her books..

Fairygirl, I will be consulting the wisdom on here for sure - being from roughly the same latitude (although I'd be surprised if you get quite the same winds we do), what have you found to be most reliable, and get through our wet winters? To my knowledge -7 or -8 celsius is about the lowest temp I can expect, unless things get really extreme.

I like visiting the herb section in Dobbies but do note that at this time of year at least, they are all undercover... I intend to grow what are probably the usual suspects - thyme and sage of varying types, curry plant is a must, as well as lavender and rosemary. providing I can find smallish varieties of the latter two.

B3 · March 2023

Don't ignore supermarket herbs. A good cheap way of starting a herb garden

Dobbin26 · April 2023

Lidl also have a reasonable range of herb seeds and pretty cheap. I've used these for the last few years for my herb plants. This year's were planted last weekend in the greenhouse and in the heated propagator. I'm looking forward to some tasty herbs again this year.

Fairygirl · April 2023

@boragejohnson - we get lower temps than that, but it's wet cold that's the problem for most herbs. The recent wet/freeze type of weather wouldn't be ideal for them either, for obvious reasons. The winds are still regular and often gale force, but probably less than yours if your more coastal, but that isn't really problematic for most herbs if you have them correctly sited.

I don't grow lavender - hate the stuff, but you'll have to accept that it needs replacing every few years. It gets woody.
Do you mean the curry plant, as in Helichrysum? I grew it many years ago, but I don't like the combination of grey with yellow flowers. It struggled in harsher winters anyway, but might be ok for you, again if the site is right. The wet stuff will be difficult for it.
Rosemary needs overwintering undercover here to ensure it survives - likewise sage. I stopped growing sage a long time ago, but rosemary can be grown from seed quite well, although you need to sow later in the year when it's more suitable for it to take easily. I think we were discussing this on another thread recently.

Thyme is pretty reliable, as long as it has a really gritty medium, but there are various varieties and some will be better than others. I only grow it as an ornamental nowadays.

Joyce Goldenlily · April 2023

The problem with growing a selection of herbs is that they come from very diverse families of plants so require very different growing conditions.
Basil is tender, likes it wet and very warm. Mint likes it cool, shady and damp. Sage likes it sunny, dry and gritty. Rosemary is happy in dry and gritty, sage hates winter wet. etc. etc.
A lot of herbs are easy to grow from seed or cuttings or supermarket pots of living herbs.
I grow Miss Jessops Upright Rosemary which I have to stake, then keep the side stems tied in to the stakes because my garden is so windy and the more common bush variety takes up too much room. I rescued my sage, grown last year from seed, a few weeks ago because the excessive wet weather was killing it off. I moved it into the conservatory in its pot and it is finally showing some tiny shoots of growth. I have never had a problem with sage before but I am going to have to keep it in the greenhouse each winter unless I grow from seed fresh each year.
Decide which herbs you use or that you particularly want to grow for the bees etc. and then research each ones particular growing requirements. You may be able to grow most of them but you will probably find some that your area or soil will not accomadate.

Butterfly66 · April 2023

My soil is quite heavy but I’ve found that Thyme and Oregano are doing well in my herb garden. But some varieties better than others.

The area gets afternoon sun but I did wonder if it would be enough and some areas are quite shady.

The golden oregano has fared the better than the standard green and is in one of the shadier spots.

I’ve tried about 6 or 7 Thyme varieties - original plan was a thyme path with a mix of varieties.

Creeping thyme failed the first winter and died away completely. Silver Posie is hanging on but very woody and ‘sad’. I can’t remember off hand the others, would need to rummage through my notebooks.

The Thymes which have grown wonderfully well even in the shadiest, dampest spots (liverworts and moss grows around them) are those I have grown from supermarket herbs - both plain and lemon thyme. Just rooted in water from packs of fresh herbs.

I don’t know if my winters are as wet as yours but I didn’t add grit to any of the planting holes.

Herb growing guide

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