Instant Herb Garden

Herbs freshly picked from the garden are far better than dried herbs or packets of fresh herbs from the supermarket.  Some herbs like bay, rosemary and sage, once established, can be harvested most of the year, and can be largely forgotten about.  Some herbs, such as coriander and basil, need successional sewing through the year to maintain a good supply.

I am usually on the ball early in the year and have a good initial harvest, but by mid-summer basil, and in particular coriander, is past its best and going to seed. It’s usually at this point I wish I’d remembered to plant some fresh seeds about a month earlier.  However, there is a more instant solution - the pots of growing herbs sold in the supermarkets.

Growing herbs fresh from the supermarket

I used to keep these pots of herbs on my kitchen windowsill and vainly try to keep them alive.  They sometimes grew enough for 1-2 harvests, but usually died fairly quickly. There is an underlying reason for this: they are very densely grown in very small pots, with little soil, so very difficult to keep watered properly and therefore prone to drying out. 

Densely packed roots with little soil lead to the plant drying out if you are not careful

However, they are very useful if you need an instant herb garden, and can be kept alive for several crops of herbs.  The trick is to split up the herbs and replant into compost and then keep in a sunny spot.  You can simply rip the root balls in several pieces.  I divided my herbs into four portions and planted into a medium planter.  This gives the roots plenty of room to grow and means that the roots are far less prone to drying out.

I split each herb pot into four clumps

Each herb pot fills a medium planter as shown

For basil, I pinch out the growing tip (just below the top leaves), which encourages the plant to bush out.  For coriander, I leave the plant to get a little established before cropping.  Basil likes warmth and is happier in a greenhouse (a sheltered sunny spot will do) but coriander will grow happily outside in the summer months.

It’s also relatively cheap; the herb pots from Aldi cost 79p, although they are fairly small pots.  If using a growing herb from another supermarket, whilst it may cost more, you may get more plants from it.

It’s obviously cheaper and more satisfying to grow from seed, but this is an instant solution for the forgetful like me.