/brochure

Set aside a corner of your garden for a traditional herb patch and you&#39;ll be hooked on these gorgeous little&nbsp;plants forever. Whether it&#39;s leafy parsley or fragrant thyme for cooking, or pot marigolds and echinacea for&nbsp;cosmetics or home-grown medicine, herb gardens are productive, useful and beautiful.

Formal herb gardens: traditionally, herb gardens were laid out in formal geometrical patterns, easy to&nbsp;recreate at home. Mark out a circle or square, then divide into symmetrical beds: L-shapes or diamonds work&nbsp;well. Add a central focal point, like an elegant container, and paved paths for a neat, satisfying design.

Herb spirals: another great way to grow herbs is to build a rising spiral of stones, bricks or vertical wooden&nbsp;boards to about 80cm high, then back-fill with soil. Herbs love the sunny, well-drained conditions and create&nbsp;a lovely cascade effect as they grow over the edges.

Please ask the staff in our Emerson's Green&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about making a herb garden.

All the beauty products in your bathroom cabinet, from soaps to moisturiser, have their origins in plants, and&nbsp;many are easy to reproduce at home using herbs you can find in our garden centre in %locations%. Here are just some of&nbsp;the ways you can garden yourself beautiful:
Lavender bath water: put one part lavender flowers with two parts bay leaves, four parts fine oatmeal and four parts bran in a saucepan with water and simmer for an hour. Strain and add a cupful to your bath to&nbsp;guarantee a good night's sleep.
Marigold moisturiser: you'll find easy-to-grow pot marigold seed in our garden centre. Melt 150g&nbsp;emulsifying cream over a pan of boiling water, then add 70g glycerol and 80ml water and stir. Stir in 30g&nbsp;dried marigold petals, and simmer for three hours: strain and store in the fridge.
Herbal foot bath: pick a large handful of mixed fresh herbs: sage, thyme, sweet marjoram and bay work&nbsp;wonders. Put in a large bowl of boiling water with a tablespoon of salt and when it's cooled a little, sink your&nbsp;feet in. The ultimate reviver after a tiring day.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about growing herbs to use as&nbsp;cosmetics.

Herbs for beauty

Bouquet garni is a traditional French method for using herbs in bunches to infuse a dish with flavour. The&nbsp;combinations help solve the problem of which herbs to grow for flavouring your cooking: simply divide your&nbsp;herb garden into separate areas for meat, fish and poultry, choose the right herbs from the selection in our&nbsp;garden centre, and you'll have a perfect selection for every dish.
Poultry dishes: lemony flavours contrast well with chicken, turkey or duck, so grow lemon thyme or lemon&nbsp;grass mixed with hyssop, thyme, tarragon and parsley.
Fish dishes: Aniseed-flavoured herbs produce classic fish dishes. Fennel and tarragon taste gorgeous with&nbsp;plaice; try lovage, dill, and bay with other fish such as bass, perch and salmon.
Meat dishes: rich meat casseroles come alive infused with flavoursome Mediterranean herbs. Oregano,&nbsp;thyme, sage, rosemary and bay can cope with slow cooking and taste wonderful together.
Make the bouquet garni by picking a sprig of each herb, with stalk attached, and tie together securely with&nbsp;string. Tie the whole bunch to the casserole handle and allow to drop into the dish during cooking. Remove&nbsp;just before serving.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about herbs you can grow for&nbsp;cooking.

Grow your own bouquet garni

Herbs are really successful in containers, as most come from shallow, stony Mediterranean soils and relish&nbsp;drier conditions in pots. Group several together for a fragrant herb patch outside your door. Here's how to&nbsp;grow five of our favourite herbs in containers:
Rosemary: give this hefty shrub plenty of room and a soil-based compost such as John Innes no. 3&nbsp;(available in our garden centre) to provide it with nutrients for longer.
Mint: mint is best in containers as it can be invasive outdoors. There are dozens of varieties in our garden&nbsp;centre: apple mint has fuzzy leaves while purple-stemmed chocolate peppermint looks sumptuous.
Coriander: sow fresh into generous troughs every month for a constant supply of fragrant flavour: as you&nbsp;use up one trough, the next is ready to pick.
Chives: generous potfuls of chives are perfect for snipping with scissors to add an oniony tang to salads.&nbsp;Their pretty pink pompom flowers are edible, too.
Basil: purple or green varieties look gorgeous in containers and they're happier there, too, as their tender&nbsp;leaves are out of reach of slugs. Keep well watered and pick regularly to keep it productive.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about growing herbs in containers.

Herbs for containers

Herbs have been grown in gardens for hundreds of years: most have a long history, handed down from&nbsp;generation to generation, with uses from medicine to cosmetics and beauty products to flavouring cooking.
They're easy-going plants which can be tucked into almost any corner of the garden, but to plunge yourself&nbsp;into their fascinating world dedicate a sunny spot to a herb garden. You'll find it's full of fragrance and flowers&nbsp;all summer: and best of all, it'll quickly become part of your daily routine to pick peppermint for your tea,&nbsp;marigolds to brew up some face cream, or a bay leaf or two for the evening meal.
To start you off, here are some essential herbs for your herb garden from the wide selection in our garden&nbsp;centre in&nbsp;%locations%:
Culinary: Mediterranean herbs to give your cooking flavour and colour, these include rosemary, bay, thyme,&nbsp;marjoram and parsley.
Medicinal: make teas and tisanes to boost your health and well-being with peppermint, chamomile,&nbsp;echinacea and lemon balm.
Cosmetic: moisturising cream, hair dye and face packs are all possible from herbs grown in your garden: try&nbsp;marigolds, soapwort (Saponaria), catmint and witch hazel.
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about growing herbs.

When space is really limited, gardening needs ingenuity. With a few clever tricks and some innovative gadgets, though, you can turn even a balcony into a productive garden overflowing with fruit, vegetables and herbs.
You'll find plenty of useful gear to help you build your balcony garden in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre, from planters to dwarf apple trees specially bred to grow in restricted spaces. Here are our top tips for balcony success.
<ul>
<li>Use large planters wherever possible, so they act more like raised beds than containers and give your veg a longer root run. Generally, the larger the container you give your veg, the happier they'll be: if your balcony is high-rise, though, get a structural engineer in first to check it can take the weight of containers full of damp compost and plants. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Use successional sowing to keep your pots working hard all year. As soon as you harvest a crop, re-sow the container or replant with vegetable plug plants for a really quick replacement. That way you'll always have new crops growing up as you eat your way through the ones you sowed earlier. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Grow container veg varieties which are better suited to growing with their roots restricted. Good choices are Courgette 'Patio Star', Aubergine 'Ophelia', Broad Bean 'The Sutton' and Pea 'Bingo' – all grow small but have bumper crops for their size. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Don't forget the fruit as there are plenty of long-cropping varieties which grow quite happily in containers including gooseberries, blueberries and blackcurrants. Strawberries do better in pots, as they're off the ground away from slugs; and you can even grow 'Minarette' apple and pear trees, trained on a single stem. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Take care over feeding and watering as your plants depend entirely on you for their every need. Automatic watering systems share the load: you'll find timers, hoses and dripper systems in our garden centre. Add a weekly liquid feed when you water: liquid seaweed acts as a general-purpose tonic, but when plants are flowering a high-potash tomato feed encourages plenty of fruit.</li>
</ul>
Please ask the staff in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;for more information and advice about growing fruit and vegetables on a balcony.

Growing fruit and veg on balconies

Hanging baskets make a bright splash of colour against a wall or fence, filled with brilliant scarlet pelargoniums or tumbling begonias. But don't just stick to bedding plants this year: try planting baskets which are productive as well as beautiful.
Edible hanging baskets are a great way to squeeze a little more produce out of your garden. Several types of fruit and veg do better raised off the ground: strawberries, for example, are kept well away from slugs, so you get to pick your crop unmunched and perfect.
Mix several different types of edible in the same basket to create a vibrant display of contrasting foliage and fruits: you can even create an 'instant dish' by planting complementary veg together, like tomato and basil for all the ingredients you need to make a flavoursome Mediterranean sauce.
You'll find everything you need to create an edible hanging basket in our garden centre in %locations%, from the baskets themselves to liners, compost, water-retaining gel to cut down on the watering workload, and of course plants and seeds. Here are some great varieties to try growing up in the air this year:
<ul>
<li>Tumbling tomatoes cascade fetchingly in jewels of red and yellow. Choose a container variety like 'Gartenperle' or 'Hundreds and Thousands'. Keep well-watered and feed with liquid fertiliser once a week.</li>
<li>
Chillies are Mexican firecrackers which love a hot, dry spot and don't mind restricted roots. Try multicoloured 'Numex Twilight' or tumbling 'Basket of Fire'.
</li>
<li>Peas: mangetout peas ('Shiraz' is a purple-podded variety) and dwarf types like 'Bingo' or 'Little Marvel' do exceptionally well in hanging baskets and don't need any support. Choose a larger basket and water well.</li>
<li>
Strawberries: fill a hanging basket with two or three strawberry plants and they'll froth joyously over the edge. Prolific varieties include 'Cambridge Favourite' or intensely-flavoured alpine 'Mara des Bois'.
</li>
<li>Herbs: Mediterranean herbs love conditions in hanging baskets. Hang your basket right by the back door for easy picking. Herbs that do well in hanging baskets include thyme, marjoram, basil and summer savory.</li>
</ul>
Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about creating edible hanging baskets.

Edible hanging baskets

Few plants are as easy-going as herbs. You can pop them in any spare corner and they'll settle in without fuss. Many of the herbs you'll find in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre are evergreen, too, so they'll perform all year without demanding much in return.
But to encourage your herbs to produce plenty of fresh growth for you to pick, it's worth paying them a little extra attention. Follow our top tips to enjoy heavenly herbs all year round.
<ul>
<li>Improve drainage: shrubby herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme hail from the poor, stony soils of the Mediterranean – and that's what they'll enjoy in your garden. If your soil is slow-draining clay, dig in bagged grit, available from our garden centre, before planting. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Sun or shade? Most herbs like to bake and prefer a spot in full sun, but there are exceptions. Parsley bolts if it's too hot, and chervil too prefers shade. Other herbs for shady spots include lemon balm, sorrel and sweet woodruff. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Sow annual herbs little and often: coriander, dill and chervil are quick-growing, leafy herbs, ready within a couple of months of sowing. Make sure you don't run out by sowing a new batch every month, ready to take over once your first harvest is finished. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Give flowering herbs a haircut: mint, marjoram and thyme flower profusely in early summer, and bees adore the blossoms. After the flowers are over, though, trim back the plants by about a quarter to encourage a new flush of leafy growth. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Repot mint every year: always grow mint in containers, as it's incredibly invasive (sink the pot among your other herbs for a more natural look). To keep it healthy, knock the plant out of the pot each spring, divide and replant in fresh compost. 
&nbsp;</li>
<li>Bring in frost-tender herbs: lemongrass, French tarragon and stevia don't tolerate temperatures below zero, so each year before the first frost dig them up and pot up in compost with added grit for drainage.&nbsp; Overwinter in a frost-free greenhouse or on a windowsill till late spring.</li>
</ul>
Please ask the staff in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;for more information and advice about growing herbs.

Keeping herbs happy

Once you've started making your own herbal teas, you'll be spoilt for tasteless teabags forever. Fresh herbal tea doesn't take any longer to make than a bag in a cup: just pick yourself a generous sprig from the herbs growing just outside the back door, dunk in a mug of boiling water and leave there for five minutes. And that's it: instant, delicious, refreshing and health-giving tea.
There are dozens of herbal teas and tisanes you can make from herbs you'll find in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre, with beneficial effects from helping digestion to aiding memory. Here are the best of the home-grown teas we love to drink:
<ul>
<li>Peppermint: The herb of choice for an invigorating, refreshing tea that also helps soothe indigestion and clear colds. There are several different mints so try a few for their different flavours: spearmint is the one to go for if you like your tea really minty.</li>
<li>
Rosemary: There are those who swear that the secret to their good memory is a cup of rosemary tea every morning for breakfast. Whether or not you believe them, rosemary tea is also great for relieving headaches and kick-starting your day.
</li>
<li>Lemon verbena: This beautiful and fragrant herb makes a fragrant yellow-green tea with a wonderful flavour like lemon sherbet. Soak three leaves in a mug and drink just before bedtime to send you off to sleep relaxed and soothed.</li>
<li>
Chamomile: You'll need flowers for this one (dry some for winter use). About a tablespoon of flowers steeped in a cup of boiling water gives you a green tea that's both anti-inflammatory, so great if you've got a sore back, and also mildly sedative, helping you get to sleep.
</li>
<li>Fennel: A great winter tea, the seeds of tall, stately fennel taste like aniseed. Pop a teaspoonful in your mug and then strain them off like tealeaves for a really refreshing drink that will freshen your breath. It's also said to relieve hunger pangs – great if you're on a diet.</li>
</ul>
Please ask the staff in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;for more information and advice about using herbs in teas and tisanes.

Herbs for tea

Big pots of leafy, flavoursome and generous annual herbs sat just outside the back door where you can reach out and pick them for your cooking are one of the delights of your %locations%&nbsp;kitchen garden. When you grow your own, you can have as big a bunch of parsley as you want: and even better, you can try more unusual herbs like caraway, summer savory, dill and chervil.
Here's how to make sure you have pots and pots of flavour from one end of the year to the next:
<ul>
<li>Sow little and often so you've always got a new tray of seedlings ready in the wings to take over once the previous crop finishes. Plant half a row, or a new container once a month from March to September for year-round flavour.</li>
<li>Keep parsley in the shade, as if you let it get too hot and dry it'll quickly flower and run to seed. Pretty aniseed-flavoured chervil, looking a little like cowparsley, is another plant that likes cool, shady conditions.</li>
<li>Pick leaves frequently as it encourages fresh growth. Basil, parsley, and coriander all flower if left to grow unchecked, which turns the leaves bitter. Keep the sweet, fragrant young foliage coming by nipping out the tips for cooking every few days.</li>
<li>Sow coriander where it's to grow as it hates being transplanted. If you haven't got a spot in the garden, just sow the large, round seeds directly into a trough or generous container to grow into a fountain of lush, spicily scented greenery for flavouring Asian cookery and salads.</li>
<li>Make a late sowing to bring indoors in around September, and you'll have fresh herbs to pick from the kitchen windowsill all through winter. Parsley and basil are perfect for this: pick them sparingly and they should keep going till spring.</li>
</ul>
​Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about sowing and growing annual herbs.

Making a herb garden

View more related categories in this group

Herbs for beauty

Grow your own bouquet garni

Herbs for containers