MAKING A HERB GARDEN

Gardens used to be primarily for providing the gardener and his family or employer with produce for the table and plants to maintain their health. Now we will go to the supermarket for our fruit and vegetables and the pharmacy for our remedies and pain killers. There is of course, nothing wrong with either of these but equally there is still enormous satisfaction in actually using something that we have grown ourselves in our own garden. Not everyone however, has the space or the time for a full vegetable garden but virtually everyone has enough of both to grow some herbs.

It is convenient and pleasing to grow your own culinary herbs. Snipping the chives or tearing the basil leaves from your own pots to add to your cooking is very satisfying. Fresh herbs are fuller in flavour than anything dried but even drying your own will mean they are likely to have more flavour than those dried commercially and often stored for much longer than you would need to store them. Unlike fruit or vegetables you also don't need a great deal of space for herbs. You can grow them on a window sill or plan a complex herb garden depending on the space available.

Below are some of the most useful and good tempered culinary herbs for you to consider:

• Coriander - use in salads and as a garnish - also an aid to digestion.
• Chives - perennial, trouble free and delicious snipped onto new potaoes.
• Garlic - it s culinary and medicinal properties make it an invaluable addition to the garden.
• Horseradish - roots planted in spring can be harvested in autumn. Grate and mix with vinegar, cream, salt and sugar to make potent horseradish sauce. Also traditionally used to treat urinary tract infections, bronchitis and coughs.
• Parsley - the flavour of fresh parsley is so strong and it is so easy to grow that there is no reason not to have a pot on a window sill or a couple of different varieties in the garden.
• Tarragon - slightly tender, protect in winter but a great addition to poultry and fish recipes. A component of the French fines herbes, parsley, chives , chervil and tarragon.
• Mint - plant it in a pot whether it is going in the ground or not as that will restrict its spread. It is such a garden thug that it needs firm control.
• Rosemary - slow growing but producing a beautiful and fragrant shrub it is wonderful for flavouring meats, especially lamb.
• Chamomile - grow it particularly for the flowers which make a wonderfully calming tea and aid to digestion.
• Chicory - chicoreum endive is the salad green. It has a slightly bitter taste and is credited with herbal properties.
• Fennel - the seeds of this quite spectacular plant are great for digestion and Florence fennel is a popular garden vegetable for salads.
• Sage - traditionally sage thriving in the garden was thought to show that "the mistress was master in the house" this is because apart from its well known culinary use it has been used to treat problems of the female reproductive system.

As you can see, even the most common place culinary herbs often have traditional medicinal uses also. Much of this once common place knowledge is now lost but if you are interested in the wealth of herbs you can grow why not have a look at the web site of the Herb Society? www.herbsociety.org.uk

Interesting Fact: Medicinal herbalism was actually illegal for 27 years following the Pharmacy Act of 1941 until repealed by the 1968 Medicines Act