IF EVER THERE was a great starting point on the GIY journey then it is surely growing your own herbs. They are relatively easy to grow and low maintenance and will save you lots of money from day one.
Many a meal can feel homegrown if there are a few fresh herbs from your garden sprinkled on top! Here’s a guide to growing the most popular herbs:
Annuals and Biennials:
Basil: Sow it in pots of compost in March and plant out in the polytunnel or greenhouse in June. Pinch growing tips regularly to produce bushy rather than leggy plants.
Parsley: Sow seed in spring for summer crop and again in autumn to have over winter – but beware, germination is painfully slow, so you might want to buy a little plant instead. It will grow well indoors or out.
Dill: Sow in April, about 20cm apart, direct in the soil. Harvest the leaves as soon as they start to appear.
Perennials:
Rosemary: It likes a sunny spot in the garden and once it takes off you will have a serious crop – so much so that many people use it as a border or hedge. Prune in spring to keep it in check. Probably easiest to buy a small plant of rosemary to plant out in spring
Thyme: Once you get a crop going, you will never need to buy again, so it’s a good investment to buy a sturdy little plant to put out in spring. Every three years or so divide the plants and re-plant.
Sage: A beautiful shrub with grey-green leaves and blue flowers. A single plant will be enough for most people – plant it in the spring in a well-drained spot and harvest regularly.
Mint: It has really strong, invasive roots, so be careful where you put it or better still, grow it in containers. It will thrive in all but the worst of soils.
Chives: an attractive plant with lovely pink/purple flowers. You can grow from seed in early spring and plant out in early summer; divide the plants every four years or so to reinvigorate.
Things to Do this Week:
Recipe of the Week – Green Tomato Chutney
This recipe comes from the Ballymaloe Cookery School cookbook – it will use the end of the precious tomato crop. I had to cook this for much longer than 45 minutes to get it to reduce by half and get it nice and rich. Makes 12 x 200ml (7fl oz) jars
Ingredients:
Directions:
Put the apples and onions into a wide, stainless-steel saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Stir well, bring to the boil and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 45 minutes or until reduced by more than half. Stir regularly, particularly toward the end of cooking. Pot into sterilised jars and cover immediately with non-reactive lids. Store in a dark, airy place and leave to mellow for at least two weeks before using.
Tip of the Week – Clear Away Tomato Plants
Tomato season is, in the Kelly household at least, officially over. For nearly five months now we’ve been eating fresh tomatoes from the garden. I grew 20 tomato plants this year (about eight varieties) and over that five month period, we’ve had more delicious tomatoes than a family of four could possibly eat. All of that from a €16 investment in seeds and of course lots and lots of time spent nurturing, weeding, mulching, watering, pruning and harvesting.
It’s time to move on and this week I took out the remaining plants from the polytunnel. We collected a large basket of tomatoes from the plants and some from the ground. The majority were green with little hope of ripening further. I used the green tomatoes to make a green tomato chutney (see recipe above) and delicious it is too.
The red ones were slightly on the soft side and so rather than try to keep them, I made them in to a passatta sauce for the freezer. The plants I put on the compost heap, chopping them up with a hedge-clippers first to help them to compost quickly. So until next July, all I can say is – it’s been a blast!
Michael Kelly is a freelance journalist, author and founder of GIY.
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