Your Herb Garden. Barbara Segall
shape in mind. For example, upright-growing rosemary suits a formal shape, while prostrate rosemary trained onto a circular wire shape becomes a living wreath.
AVOID OVERSOWING
Nature ensures the survival of most flowering plants by providing innumerable tiny seeds. Not all will survive the prevailing conditions if they self sow, but where you can control conditions in the greenhouse or on the windowsill, you could end up with more than enough seedlings. So the first rule about sowing your own seed is don’t overdo it – unless you have a large herb garden with plenty of empty space to fill!
CUTTING BACK
In an established herb garden, now is the time to begin cutting back and clearing the stems and foliage of herbaceous perennials, such as fennel and salad burnet.
A CLEAN START
Hygiene is most important in a closed environment such as a greenhouse. Always use clean seed trays or pots, and a good sterilised seed compost.
CHECKLIST
Growing plants from seed is a magical and rewarding task. The transformation of powdery or oddly shaped seeds into plants is something that nature can do without the gardener’s help, but once involved in sowing your own herb plants you will find yourself hooked to an enjoyable and seasonal cycle.
Growing from seed is an inexpensive way of providing a large stock of plants. If your herb garden is small and you only need one or two plants of each herb, then you should buy these direct from herb nurseries.
Indoor sowing gives you strong seedlings to plant out as soon as the weather permits. It gives you a longer growing season, and therefore more material to use and preserve. Once the soil is warm, sow seeds outdoors into the growing site and in succession, to ensure a steady supply of good leafy material. You can sow annuals and biennials indoors, but chervil, parsley, cumin, coriander and dill don’t always transplant well. These plants suffer setbacks in growth when their roots are disturbed, and this speeds them into flowering and setting seed, instead of producing foliage. If you do start them off indoors, handle very gently when transplanting and water well to get the plants established.
Alternatively, sow a few seeds into trays of formed soil blocks. When you transplant them, the block is easier to handle than a small seedling and can be placed straight into the planting hole.
A cold start
Some seeds need a period of cold before they germinate. This dormancy mechanism prevents them from germinating too early and being killed by cold weather. In natural conditions, the seed falls to the ground or is blown to its growing site. There it stays until after the cold periods of autumn and winter. Once the soil warms up again, the seed germinates. Stratification can be done artificially.
Check seeds daily
Seeds must be checked every day and if the compost begins to dry out, water with a watering can fitted with a fine rose. As soon as germination takes place and white shoots are visible on the surface, remove the newspaper and move the seed tray into a lighter but cooler situation. Water the seedlings from the base of their pots or with a fine rose.
Potting on
Once the seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant them into individual pots to allow strong root structures to develop.
Hardening off
Before you plant seedlings out into their growing positions, they need to be acclimatised to outdoor conditions. This is called ‘hardening off’. Move the seedlings out of the greenhouse or kitchen to a sheltered, shaded site during the day and bring them in again at night. After about seven days you can transplant them. Plant half-hardy annuals out into their growing positions when all danger of frost is over.