Gardening during a pandemic – growing your own herbs
Our series of gardening blogs is continuing as part of our bid to get the people of Wales out into their gardens during the current Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s still not too late to take up gardening and you could even give growing your own herbs a go. Many garden centres are offering home delivery services at the moment.
If you’re up for the challenge, then start by planning where you are going to have your herb garden. Most herbs are happiest in sunny or half sun, half shade positions and in well-drained soil. Make sure your garden meets these requirements for happy herb growing.
It’s a good idea to have your herb garden or herb pots as near to your dwelling as possible. When it comes to cooking, you can just pop out of the back door and snip off what you need. Herbs are wonderfully aromatic, so a pathway through them is perfect for raising the spirits.
The great thing about herbs is that many of them will grow happily in poor soil and in very dry conditions as long as there is some good drainage. If your soil is reasonable, then dig lightly to remove any weeds before planting.
Choosing your herbs is really important. They should look attractive and complement each other. Select by foliage, colour and usefulness in the kitchen.
Once you’ve chosen your herbs, dig a hole slightly larger than the pot, plant your herb and fill it with a planting or multipurpose compost and water well. Use freestanding containers for your plants instead if you don’t have garden space or an unable to do digging.
During the growing season feed your herbs with a granular feed such as Growmore in March and June or you can do this monthly with a liquid feed.
Most herbs do not grow to be too big, so space them out around 18 inches apart. In future years prune down hard, usually using shears in March.
Check back next week for more top tips. Please share your garden pictures with us on social media using the hashtag #keepcalmandgetreadytogarden.