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Pots for cooks
Love cooking? Organic herb guru Jekka McVicar shows you how to plant up four tasty herb selections for all your favourite dishes
Reproduced from the August 08 issue of Gardeners' World magazine. This month's issue on sale now. Subscribe now by direct debit and save 25 per cent
Herbs can transform a meal into a feast, enhancing and adding flavour to a huge array of dishes. Meat, fish, poultry and vegetarian recipes all benefit from different herbs, so I've designed the perfect culinary combination for each. The herbs will grow well in large pots by your back door, so sprigs are handy for the kitchen. It's a good idea to paint the pots different colours so that they?re easy to identify.
A peat-free potting compost is the best choice for these plants, and they'll benefit from a weekly feed of seaweed extract, such as Maxicrop, until early autumn. This encourages leaf production and keeps plants sweet and succulent. The herbs will flower at different times, but as each one finishes, cut it back to below the flowering shoots (don't cut into the old wood of herbs like rosemary and thyme).
This will keep the plants under control, so that they don't outgrow the pot, and will encourage lots of fresh new growth for picking.
Planting up your pot
Place a piece of broken crock over the hole in the base of the pot to maintain good drainage. Add peat-free compost until the container is about two-thirds full.- Knock out each herb from its pot in turn and arrange in the container. It's a good idea, however, to keep the mint in its original pot so the roots can't spread, otherwise it'll take over the whole container.
- Once all the plants are in place, fill between the roots with compost. I always use an empty pot as a scoop, because this gives me a free hand to hold the leaves out of the way.
- Once you're happy with the look of your arrangement, water in the plants to settle compost around the roots. Remove the rose from the watering can and gently water around the plants, not over them. If any gaps appear between the roots of the plants, simply add a little more compost, then water again.
Don't be tempted to mulch
Many ornamental containers can be enhanced with a decorative mulch, however it's important not to add one to these cooks' pots. As they're primarily planted for picking, you don't want to introduce anything that may inhibit plant growth, which a mulch can sometimes do.
There are two main reasons - first, mulch can weigh down the compost, pressing out the air and consequently hindering the development and spread of the roots. Second, mulch can sometimes prevent liquid fertiliser and water reaching the soil, which frequently harvested plants desperately need.
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