Creating a sustainable herb garden is surprisingly easy, joyously rewarding and highly recommended for both new and experienced gardeners alike.

Many herbs are far easier to grow than, for example, a vegetable garden, especially if your garden is a small one or you grow plants only in pots.

Vegetables are fairly affordable when in season but fresh herbs, when and if you are lucky enough to find them, tend to be quite expensive. On the positive side, you can grow lots of them in a small space. While they are not a meal on their own, their exquisite flavours and aromas have the ability to transform even a mediocre meal into something very special.

Herb gardens are beautiful places but also can help transform even a mediocre meal into something special

Herb gardens need to have six to eight hours of sunshine each day and the soil should be well-drained as water-logged roots — unless growing something like water mint — can often result in problems such as root rot, ultimately killing the plants.

It is a good idea to locate your herb garden close to the kitchen if you possibly can. This makes it easy to nip out and cut whatever herbs you wish to add to the food under preparation.

As with all plants, it is a matter of growing tall herbs at the back of the bed, medium height in the middle and low growing ones at the front. Spaces between plants vary from species to species and different species also need different sizes of pots/containers. As there isn’t enough space in this column for separate growing information about individual herbs, I suggest that, having decided which herbs to grow, you do a little research of your own. Researching specific plants is a wonderful way of learning about their individual needs, their histories and their uses and it’s a very enjoyable pastime too.

Select a suitable spot for your herbs garden — or place an array of medium to large clay pots and other suitable containers in the chosen location — and prepare the soil by digging/mixing in a decent amount of good quality, organic compost (if preparing soil/compost for pots/containers then a ratio of 75 percent soil to 25 percent compost is ideal), removing any weeds, weed roots, large stones and other debris in the process. Do not use manure in your herb garden/pots as it has a high nitrogen content which encourages rapid plant growth but adversely affects the flavour and fragrance of herbs.

It is not only a good idea and it also reduces the amount of work involved to plant perennial herbs (herbs that live for a number of years) in one section of the herb garden. Purely seasonal/annual herbs (these live for a few months only) can be planted in another section so that the roots of perennials are not disturbed when seasonal herbs are being replaced. Additionally, perennial herbs usually require far less water than their seasonal cousins so keeping them separate makes for a simpler watering schedule.

Some herb plants can be found in nurseries these days but you will need to grow quite a few from seed. Seeds for a surprising variety of herbs can be found in seed stores, although you may really have to search them out. If you cannot find exactly what you want then do remember that there are an ever-increasing number of online seed-sellers based in Pakistan now and they may have what you are looking for. If you are unsure of an online seed-seller’s credentials, try them out with a small order first and, if all goes well, you can increase your order next time around.

Once established, herb gardens are beautiful places bursting with fragrance, flowers and fascinating leaf forms and have the added benefit of being magnets for bees, butterflies, various useful insects and for birds such as the gorgeous, shimmering purple sunbirds, etc.

Here are just a few of the herbs that really do well throughout the coastal regions and plains of our extremely diverse country and which are incredibly easy to grow.

Perennial herbs: Aniseed, fennel, mint varieties, marjoram, sage, hyssop, chives, garlic chives, lemon grass, plecanthrus, thyme, lemon balm, bergamot, chamomile and tarragon. Lavender and rosemary can be a little tricky.

Seasonal/annual herbs: Nasturtiums, borage, coriander, dill, oregano, basil, chervil, parsley, cilantro, calendulas and fenugreek.

This being autumn, all of the above can be started off from seed now. Tiny seeds are best started off in seed trays/pots and planted out once they are large enough to handle. Larger seeds can be sown, individually, directly where they are to grow.

As a general rule, the smaller the seed the nearer the soil/compost surface it should be sown: chamomile seed, for instance, can be sown on the soil/compost surface and then a miniscule amount of soil/compost sprinkled on top. The same goes for thyme.

Seeds that are large enough to handle individually, should be sown at a soil/compost depth equal to twice the size of the seed.

Keep seed trays/pots slightly moist but not soaking wet, protect them from rain if there is any around and, almost before you know it, you should have herb seedlings to plant out and enjoy.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened.

Published in Dawn, EOS, September 29th, 2019