Your Herb Garden. Barbara Segall

shape in mind. For example, upright-growing rosemary suits a formal shape, while prostrate rosemary trained onto a circular wire shape becomes a living wreath.

       tasks FOR THE month

       AVOID OVERSOWING

      Nature ensures the survival of most flowering plants by providing innumerable tiny seeds. Not all will survive the prevailing conditions if they self sow, but where you can control conditions in the greenhouse or on the windowsill, you could end up with more than enough seedlings. So the first rule about sowing your own seed is don’t overdo it – unless you have a large herb garden with plenty of empty space to fill!

       CUTTING BACK

      In an established herb garden, now is the time to begin cutting back and clearing the stems and foliage of herbaceous perennials, such as fennel and salad burnet.

       A CLEAN START

      Hygiene is most important in a closed environment such as a greenhouse. Always use clean seed trays or pots, and a good sterilised seed compost.

       CHECKLIST

       Continue soil preparation

       Clean containers

       Continue indoor seed sowing and check daily for signs of germination

       Pot seedlings on and harden off

       Cut back winter-damaged stems

       Divide large clumps of herb plants

       Buy and plant out hardy herbs

       Plan and plant up container herb gardens

       Begin training herb topiaries

       Plant roses

       GROWING HERBS FROM SEED

      Growing plants from seed is a magical and rewarding task. The transformation of powdery or oddly shaped seeds into plants is something that nature can do without the gardener’s help, but once involved in sowing your own herb plants you will find yourself hooked to an enjoyable and seasonal cycle.

      Growing from seed is an inexpensive way of providing a large stock of plants. If your herb garden is small and you only need one or two plants of each herb, then you should buy these direct from herb nurseries.

      Indoor sowing gives you strong seedlings to plant out as soon as the weather permits. It gives you a longer growing season, and therefore more material to use and preserve. Once the soil is warm, sow seeds outdoors into the growing site and in succession, to ensure a steady supply of good leafy material. You can sow annuals and biennials indoors, but chervil, parsley, cumin, coriander and dill don’t always transplant well. These plants suffer setbacks in growth when their roots are disturbed, and this speeds them into flowering and setting seed, instead of producing foliage. If you do start them off indoors, handle very gently when transplanting and water well to get the plants established.

      Alternatively, sow a few seeds into trays of formed soil blocks. When you transplant them, the block is easier to handle than a small seedling and can be placed straight into the planting hole.

       SOWING SEED AND GROWING ON

       Fill the seed trays with compost until they are three-quarters full.

       Tamp down the surface lightly with a flat board, then water the compost using a watering can fitted with a fine rose, or stand the trays in a bath of water. Allow the water to drain off before sowing. If you wish, mix the water with a fungicide to help prevent damping off and subsequent failure of the seedlings.

       When the compost is moist, sow fine seed thinly onto its surface. Large seeds, should be well spaced out and covered with a thin layer of soil, just to the depth of the seed itself.

       After sowing, cover the seed tray with a piece of glass or clear plastic. This ensures that the compost does not dry out.

       Place the tray in a dark or shady part of the greenhouse or on the kitchen windowsill, or cover with a piece of folded newspaper.

       Most seeds need warmth to germinate: a heated propagator where you can provide an even temperature of 15°C(60°F) is ideal. However, parsley needs higher temperatures of 21–27°C (70–80°F) and lavender germinates at temperatures lower than 10°C (50°F).

       A cold start

      Some seeds need a period of cold before they germinate. This dormancy mechanism prevents them from germinating too early and being killed by cold weather. In natural conditions, the seed falls to the ground or is blown to its growing site. There it stays until after the cold periods of autumn and winter. Once the soil warms up again, the seed germinates. Stratification can be done artificially.

       Check seeds daily

      Seeds must be checked every day and if the compost begins to dry out, water with a watering can fitted with a fine rose. As soon as germination takes place and white shoots are visible on the surface, remove the newspaper and move the seed tray into a lighter but cooler situation. Water the seedlings from the base of their pots or with a fine rose.

       Potting on

      Once the seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant them into individual pots to allow strong root structures to develop.

       Hardening off

      Before you plant seedlings out into their growing positions, they need to be acclimatised to outdoor conditions. This is called ‘hardening off’. Move the seedlings out of the greenhouse or kitchen to a sheltered, shaded site during the day and bring them in again at night. After about seven days you can transplant them. Plant half-hardy annuals out into their growing positions when all danger of frost is over.