Herb Garden, Part 1 - Seasonal Potted Herbs

This is the first part of the Herb Garden plan.




When I started on the Herb Garden journey I had no idea whatsoever what all the different herbs were with regards to cooking.  Generally I knew about a few herbs used in Italian cooking and Indian cooking but that was it.   I found I knew even less when I first looked at the huge array of herbs that can be grown.

The first type of herb I'm looking at is what I am calling the seasonal herb.  In other words it dies in the British climate and you can only grown it during the spring, summer and early autumn months after which it will die.  In particular I'm looking at how to easily have a wider variety of herbs growing close to the back door without being restricted to a small kitchen window sill.

To keep your attention, I'm really considering Corriander, Basil, Tarragon and other herbs that are small delicate plants where you want them but don't necessarily need tons.  When considering a plant you do wish to grow a large quantity of, you can read the next blog on Part 2 - Seasonal Drills.

The solution I came up with for these singluar potted herbs that die off each year had to be one on a budget that can be achieved by anyone whereever they are.  The solution nonetheless came from the Internet having seen a very creative idea of what someone had done using a wooden pallet.

When you look carefully a particular type of pallet is used - one that has braces that are turned in to four legs.   One the basis that old dusty pallets are left around for no particular reason there's a great opportunity to up-cycle here and turn something that is heading for the skip in to something useful. Having knocked the bottom slat off this pallet and removed any nails, it's ready for painting and holds twelve individual pots.

What I found particularly attractive about this method is because of its upright nature you can plant a wide variety in a very small space.  I'm currently dusting off a pallet to paint and prepare.

Generally, I'd say around twelve different seasonal herbs provides a huge variety for cooking and should be enough variety and quantity to spice up any dish, sandwich or platter over the summer months.  So it doesn't matter whether you live in a large estate house, have a tiny yard the size of a postage stamp or you work on a building site, you can have fresh herbs anywhere and everywhere.

Look out for the next entry about Seasonal Drills.

Planning the Herb Garden - do as James Martin does.

One of my aspirations this year is to really get to grips with the Herb Garden.

Last year saw the gathering together of some herbs in a haphazard way including finding some Mint growing through and someone giving a Lemongrass plant.  Saturday Kitchen is one of my favorite cooking programmes with Yorkshireman James Martin.  I has always tickled me when the TV Chefs say "just grab some thyme"...   I mean who has a Herb Garden to hand?

It got me thinking about this a little deeper and a little bit more thorough and I came to the conclusion that there's two main types of Herbs from a cultivation point of view.  There's those that stand the English winter and then there's those that only grow here seasonally.  I spent quite a lot of time last year observing the garden allowing it all to soak in and to really get in tune with the plants and their cycles.

What transpired is that there's two main types of Herbs that survive the winter.  There are those that need deep soil and there are those that are not so deeply rooted.   Mint for example needs a big deep pot and so too does Rosemary because it grows in to a small tree, whereas others like Thyme are much smaller and only need a much shorter soil depth.

To get the most from the garden I've decided to focus on planting up these two types that remain alive year after year and consider the seasonal ones more of a catch crop.  What I'm hoping this means is that on Saturday morning I can watch my favorite TV Chef and in the afternoon I can do as he does and simply pop out and get some Rosemary.

As part of looking at how to organise a productive garden I've also looked at the catch crop type herb.   This is the Corriander, the Basil and the Rocket.  Some of these are planted in drills (long lines) and others are planted in little pots.  The big question is how to carve up the space so it works practically.

Over the next couple of blog entries I'll be sharing how I'm organising the planting up of this wide variety of herbs whether they be seasonal or the shallow or deep rooted plants that survive the winter.

For now I'm happy to know I've already got the common or garden mint potted up and really glad to have considered there's four different types of planting areas required that each need to perform and produce a crop.  It's taken twelve months to gather the ideas together in to something coherent and I'm looking forward to sharing what I've found with anyone else who is starting out.

That Rosemary sure does turn Lamb in to something a bit special.

Knowing your onions

The onions are already in.

It's slightly on the crazy side trying to work out the quantity of veg you need for the year in one shopping list.  It like a weekly shopping list but with larger quantities.

This crop is being shared between four people.  A hundred for one, two hundred for two people and four hundred for another leaving a hundred to never root or take.

Crops fail.  It seems the only way to combat this is to mix the varieties up and plant more than you need leaving some contingency.

They come out around June/July time.  Put simply it means they have to be stored from June all the way through the hot months of August and September through the winter and in to the spring.

Today, I checked last years crop and one has sprouted and there's about seventy left - they're getting used pretty quickly.  It's mid February, it's wid-winter and cold so they're going in to lots of Italians, Onion Gravy and other good stuff.

Having them rooted before planting out gives them a better chance of staying in the ground rather than getting pulled up by foxes, cats and birds.   There's a rough mix of half white to red and a couple of hundred really large Hercules Onions to bump up the crop.  They'll get planted out around early spring and in just 12 to 14  weeks of being in the ground they'll be fully grown.

Getting to know your onions has been a great thing for me.  It's the one thing that used to cause me an extra trip to the supermarket and in doing so usually another £50 over the till.   There are no cash registers around a food garden.  Each onion I pick is a big saving in petrol and things I didn't really need in the first place leaving some time and money left over for the things I enjoy more.

February is for dreaming about Icy Cold Bohemian Beer

I'm in to my second full year with the allotment and the blog is already helping me reflect on the mammoth life journey the kitchen garden really is.

Unlike my first year, there is no need for me to dig up the roots of what looked like the Amazon Rainforest.  The rigorous digging throughout last February and the choice planting of potato and other crop throughout the year has left the soil in a friable and fluffy condition.  The soil has been winter dug with a spade to kill all the soil gremlins in the freezing temperatures.

There's a new chap up at the garden that I had the pleasure of meeting at the weekend.  He has the right idea, he simply said "it'll be great in the summer to open a cold beer and put the feet up after all the hard work".   12 months ago I was saying exactly the same thing.   He's on the same page I was on last year.  The beer in your first summer tastes like the one they describe in Shawshank Redemption when they're on work release from the prison tarring the roof.

If you fancy drinking your Icy Cold Bohemain Beer, the best time to take the an allotment having done so is late summer going in to winter.  It gives you time to clear the ground for the first time and remove all the plants and weeds to make preparations for sowing seeds and planting.  It is a very manual laborious task.  It's a personal journey that I can see the new guy is going through.  Payback is of course sometime in the future so the first spade depth that you dig is literally paying it forward 12 months for a taste of something special.

So what's great about February?  Well, today there's food in the ground.!  Lots of it.   Kale, Leeks, Sprouts, Carrots and Cabbage.  Whether it's a Sunday dinner or Sausage & Mash it's all there when you include your potatos and onions that were harvested 6 months earlier.

If you are starting to dig, take it from me the payback does come - just focus on the Icy Cold Bohemian Beer and you'll be on the right road.

Tesco Superstore is Closing in Doncaster

Reported today on BBC News, my local Tesco store is closing.

Sadly there's a total of 2,000 jobs that will be lost across the country as part of their £250m cost saving exercise.  It seems a bit crazy as only twelve months before Morrisons opened a similar superstore next door in Doncaster.

It got me thinking a little about my supermarket shop.  It's kind of non existent with all the fresh food available.   What got pulled last summer is now frozen as soups or jarred up.  The people I know have really got wise to the evil empire type supermarket - I remember last year one guy was elated by making his shopping run pay.   He purchased some discounted Living Salad for £ 0.90 in to 12 fully grown lettuce plants.

I thought it was a bit far fetched, but it was amazing enterprising and inspiring really.  On Sunday I'm dropping off a bag of Kale to someone as you just can't buy it in the stores at the moment.

So, what's happened.  Have they lost their marketshare of offering the same old same old stuff to weekly punters or have the weekly punters just got wise and started growing their own; or has the company often quoted as the evil empire needed to pull in a bit.  I do know Tesco as a company is signed-up to support the local Foodbank, in this way I guess they will be hugely missed.

I know for me a lot of this journey started with Hugh Chicken Run in 2008.

Bye bye local Tesco Superstore.   Hello Kitchen Garden, you're looking brighter every day.

Welcome to the blog

Welcome to the blog.

I've been thinking about writing this blog for over 12 months and made myself a commitment to keep a blog going forward to help other budding gardeners get to grips with their allotments so they don't lose the plot completely.

The area i'm using for horticulture is about 40 square meters.  On the basis that the whole world is a garden it makes no difference whether you're using planters on window sills, or you have a garden the size of a postage stamp or you've got a whole field.

I'm a novice.  I've been learning on a community garden from others.   There's a huge ethos of sharing and learning.  I'm sat on more fruit, veg, herbs and flowers than you can shake a stick at.  It really has been a truly rewarding experience setting up the past year and I'm looking forward to this year with everything in place and the knowledge of last year going forward.

I will be looking at a few new projects to do with the garden and I'm hoping to clear up some myths about the grow your own scene.