The joys of the herb garden . . .

Aberglasney’s Head Gardener Joseph Atkin shares his thoughts on the joys of growing a successful herb garden.
We have all grown herbs — both successfully and less so!
For me, the success does not lie in the beautiful plant in the border or pot, but in the food that it is added to.
Far too often I have looked at herbs in the garden and realised it has never been used in all the time it's growing there.
This is the first year l have had a large herb selection (see the Aberglasney Herb Garden above) together with a busy café that will use copious amounts of anything useful.
It seems obvious that if the herbs are there then all you do is use them. The hard part is having the right amount of both herbs and vegetables at the right time.
In the spring, I was buying herbs and vegetable plants for the garden.
The one thing the growers said is that the more unusual stuff is very popular.
But many people don’t quite know what to do with it.
The problem with the well-known herbs is, how much do you actually need?
We have grown two types of parsley: French curled and flat.
Both were really easy from seed and the cafe has about 200 plants to harvest from for garnishes, soups and salads.
We have about 20 clumps of chives. Each is completely chopped to the ground every day or two, by the time the last one is done the first is ready again.
lf they do run to flower, they can simply be chopped again.
The herb we will certainly grow more of in the future is Basil.
We never have enough of either purple plain or Italian basil which is used in salads and soups.
As the herb border is also a display border and gets a huge amount of interest, there are many more unusual things which we are just getting used to.

The most interesting for me is Vietnamese coriander (above) which is both spicy and pungent; it is also really easy to grow and looks fantastic.
It can be used in salads. soups or stews.
It’s very strong so you don't need a great deal.
It tastes a little like coriander but with a citrusy kick, being a very common ingredient in South East Asian cooking.
A great asset of this herb is that it is happy in shade or damper soil so most people can try it.
Herbs generally like south facing or sunny sites and don’t require a great deal of moisture or fertiliser when established.
New plantings need to be checked for watering and really benefit from dead heading and clipping as most will naturally want to become leggy.
Many do need winter protection, but when you look at the price of a potted herb in comparison to buying herbs every time you shop they are well worth buying annually.
Now’s the time to . . .
Cut hedges but remember they benefit from a good water and feed after cutting.
Remember that most conifers don’t grow back from old wood so be careful not to remove too much material from the hedge.
Feed fruit: especially apples with super phosphate to avoid bitter pit.
Harvest: it is really important to keep the supply of flowers and vegetables going
Keep dead-heading to prolong flowering seasons.
Aberglasney House and Gardens website -
http://www.aberglasney.org