~ Seed for HERBS ~
Herbs can be some of the most rewarding plants to grow, with even a few plants providing flavouring for many different meals, as well as filling the garden with scent and colour. Many of the herbs we offer can be grown very successfully in containers if you have limited garden space or want to cheer up a patio or balcony.
Chervil
A biennial herb related to parsley, with a delicate aniseed flavour, Chervil was introduced across Europe by the Romans, and is one of the four traditional French 'fines herbes', along with tarragon, chives, and parsley, all essential to French cooking.
Use in salads and cooked vegetables and sauces / soups, add at the end to preserve the flavour.
at least 200 seed, organic. £
Melissa (Lemon Balm);
Related to mint, Lemon Balm has a very nice lemon-minty flavour, & is used similarly - it makes a very pleasant herbal tea, which is sweet and calming, and also in fruit dishes (as well as flavouring ice-cream if you’re getting really fancy).
Its name ‘Melissa’ comes from the Greek for ‘honeybee’, and it is a useful bee plant, attracting pollinators to your garden.
Makes a sweet & calming tea.
about 1000 seed £
Sowing Information
Pretty easy: Sow the seeds on the surface of the soil in trays or pots in spring, pressing them in gently. Don't start too early as the baby plants don’t like cold weather. Once they have germinated, pot them up, harden them off and plant them out. Once established, they are make a robust perennial bush, and you can pick the leaves as they are required. If the plants get a bit tired and tatty-looking, you can cut them back to encourage a new flush of growth.
Sculpit
Sculpit - aka Stridolo, and a cultivated larger version of the wildflower Bladder campion - is well known in Italy, but rarely grown in the UK. It's hardy and easy to grow - sow from mid spring either direct or started in modules - and crops throughout the summer well into autumn.
Botanically speaking, this is Silene vulgaris / S. inflata. It has an interesting 'herbal' flavour with a slight bitterness, and is often used to flavour egg and rice dishes, though we also really like it in a mixed salad.
Good flavour - ideal in omlettes, risottos as well as salads
50 seed, organic. £
'Quillquiña' (Porophyllum ruderale)
This is another incedible herb that is rarely available in the UK. With a citrus spicy scent and flavour, this is used in South America to make delicious salsa, & can also be used anywhere you would use fresh coriander.
The plants have pointy leaves with an attractive blue-green colour & grow eventually to around waist high.
Spicy-citrus flavour, particularly good with bean dishes and potato cakes.
40 seed £
'Huacatay' (Peruvian Black Mint, or Apple Marigold)
Huacatay is a herb used in Peru, with a flavour partway between coriander and mint. The plant is easy to grow indoors or out and though it can get really big in a greehouse or polytunnel you just trim it back to a smaller size if necessary.
Great chopped finely and sprinkled on bean dishes, and makes a delicious sauce that can be used like ketchup.
30 seed, organic. £
You need: 1 rocoto pepper , 1 hot yellow Aji pepper - both with the seeds removed!, a small bunch of huacatay leaves, a generous bunch of mint leaves, Lime juice, lots of garlic, olive oil, salt.
Put everything except the oil in a blender. Blend the peppers garlic and leaves together, adding oil until you get a smooth puree, kind of like making mayonnaise. Add salt to taste. Put in a squirty bottle and drizzle liberally over rice dishes and fried things - it's fantastic! If you haven't got the right chillies growing, then you can substitute any medium-hot chillies and it is still pretty good.
Summer Savoury
Introduced to the UK by the Romans, and the main ingredient of ‘Herbes de Provence’ mix, this is an excellent and easily-grown herb with a flavour like marjoram, mint and thyme.
Used all the time for flavouring beans, stews, soups, casseroles etc.
about 1000 seed £
'Frise Vert Fonce' Parsley
This is a nice tightly curled green parsley from France, bred to have good long stalks that hold the leaves clear of the soil, so less mud to wash off when it rains. Parsley will grow well either in a pot or in the ground. We always have a clump on the go in the greenhouse which will generally overwinter in all but the coldest years, and another in the garden over the summer, so it is just to hand when cooking.
An essential herb for the kitchen . Tightly curled.
1.5g seed £
'Dutch Mammoth' Dill
Dill! Here we have a particularly large-growing strain from Holland. Very easy to grow. Sow thinly direct into well prepared soil once the weather has warmed up in spring, and just keep the soil moist until plants are established.
Grows up to 3’ tall, so allow a reasonable amount of space. The feathery leaves are used in all sorts of fish dishes and cucumber pickles, but also in soups, salads, stir-fry, omelettes, chicken and seafood dishes as well.
The plants are very pretty when in flower. Our favourite uses for dill are for potato salad, and in mustard-dill mayonnaise.
1g seed £
Sowing Information
It does tend to bolt (run to seed) in hot dry weather, so sow short rows two or three times over the summer for a constant supply of leaves.
'Gigante di Napoli' Parsley
This is a large flat-leaved parsley from Naples, ideal for cooked dishes and for those of you who prefer this type.
Vigorous growing with big dark green leaves & a good flavour.
1.5g seed £
Superior Licorice Mint (Korean Mint) LOVED BY BEES!
An amazing herb with a delicious sweet flavour between mint and basil. Lovely in a decorative border or herb bed.
This is a special variety from Korea,with particularly big leaves. Really beautiful, everyone who sees it in the gardens admires it.
It is one of the best bee plants we've every grown; they just love the beautiful blue flowers.
at least 400 seed, organic. £
Sowing Information
The plants will usually overwinter and come back from the roots next year, but dont worry, it isn't at all invasive & doesn't spread. The perfect garden plant! You can use it as a herb, and it also makes a very pleasant tea.
Coriander - leaf selection
This is an easy herb we always grow so that it is fresh to hand when cooking. We sow short rows regularly throughout the season in the greenhouse or garden - it takes up very little space for the pleasure it adds to our meals.
Grows well outdoors from late spring through into summer. You can extend the season by sowing under fleece or (ideally) in a polytunnel in early spring or in autumn and then you can have fresh coriander almost all year round.
several hundred seed, organic. £
Sowing Information
If you want to grow coriander for the fresh leaves (rather than for seed), it is important to grow a variety selected for this purpose - like this strain which is slower to flower, and produces nice bushy plants. Keep well watered and pick very frequently to maximise production, and make two or three sowings at monthly intervals to make sure you always have fresh leaves to pick.
Purple Basil
A lovely basil with deep red-purple leaves, and an excellent sweet scent. It adds an extra splash of cheerful colour to your salads.
Looks great in the herb-bed too!
400 seeds £
'Cinnamon' Basil
An unusual variety with an incredible cinnamon scent. The flavour is similar to sweet basil but with strong overtones of cinnamon.
Cinnamon basil has green leaves, and pretty purple flower spikes that seem particularly attractive to bees. Ideal in cooked dishes, and actually its just really nice as a decorative plant - the bush smells delicious when you brush against it.
A medium sized bush, green leaves, amazing cinnamon scent.
400 seed £
Lemon Basil
Delicious - a real basil scent but with strong lemon flavour. Use it anywhere that you would use normal basil, but we find it particularly good in salad dressings, with fish dishes, and on fresh garden peas. You can also use it to make a nice herbal tea.
A green, lemon-scented basil.
400 seed £
Mammoth Lettuce-Leaf Basil
This is the largest-leaved basil we could find. Relatively compact (30cm) plants, but they have large 'lettuce'-type leaves. An excellent sweet basil flavour for salads and other dishes. We like it in tomato sandwiches as each leaf will cover an entire slice of tomato!
Green, huge leaves.
400 seeds £
Finissimo Basil - IDEAL FOR WINDOWSILLS
This one has a lovely spherical bush shape which is ideal for growing in a pot. The leaves are small (2 cm), but there are loads of them and they have a really strong basil scent and flavour. One of Kate's favourites - perfect for growing on a windowsill so that it's always to hand when you're cooking.
Strong-scented compact bushes from Greece, about 1 foot tall.
400 seed £
Sweet Genovese Basil
This is a medium-sized sweet basil from Genoa - which we have added for those of you who requested a traditional pesto variety.
Green, medium-sized leaves.
400 seed £
