How to create the perfect herb garden at home

Fill lazy weekends at home and turn your store cupboard staples into recipes packed with flavour by cultivating a miniature herb garden.

According to these experts, it’s the perfect way to banish boredom and make your food supplies go further at the same time.

‘April is the best time of year to create the perfect herb garden,’ says Amanda Brame, from the Horticulture Department at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond. ‘At Petersham Nurseries, we have the luxury of a beautiful kitchen garden which we cram full of many different varieties of herbs ready for the chefs to add into their delicious creations. To get the look, take inspiration from the nurseries and keep the containers simple, filling each one with a single herb type and grouping them together for that final stylish impact.’

For your own garden, window ledge or even kitchen counter, try Kew Gardens’ online shop for a wonderful selection of pots and planters. Primrose stocks a huge variety of seeds and delivers to your door, while big supermarkets sell the essential herbs, already grown in their own pots. Paul Leonard, head chef at Michelin-starred The Forest Side in Cumbria, is a fan of the latter approach. ‘Living herb pots from supermarkets are great as they can be planted in larger pots and encouraged to grow on,’ he says, ‘meaning the hardest part is done for you.’

Once you’ve decided how you’ll grow your herbs, which ones should you pick? Top of the chefs’ lists at Petersham Nurseries are borage, sage, thyme, rosemary, basil and Moroccan mint. ‘Out of these, borage is best grown from a seed wherever you want it to grow,’ says Brame. ‘It requires a little more room than the others, but it’s our favourite. The pretty little blue flowers are edible and can be sprinkled over pasta and pastry alike. Once established, the tips of the plant make for delicious borage Fritti.’

Leonard thinks that the keenest growers shouldn’t limit themselves to just herbs. ‘If you want to go a step further with your growing, at this time of year radishes and turnips are great, as they can be sown directly outside,’ he says. ‘Onion sets are also relatively cheap and give great results with little maintenance.’ Whatever you choose to grow, if you’re keeping your herbs outside, ‘the main points are not to over water, and to cover the seeds until they are germinated, as birds and pests are big fans.’

And for those who aren’t too green-fingered? Oli Martin, head chef at Hipping Hall in Lancashire, explains that thyme, rosemary, sage, mint and chives are ‘staple herbs that require little to no love once planted and come back every year.’ And don’t forget easy-to-care-for lemon balm, which just happens to be great in a cocktail…