Garden: 4 Easy Herbs to Grow in Pots and What to do With Them.

As I started writing this post I tried to think back to the first herbs I grew. I’ve always had herbs close by somehow - from a window box to a varied herb garden. Currently I live in a place with a small backyard and everything has to be in pots but the 4 herbs I’m about to talk about have followed me from home to home for at least the last six years.

Herbs are a great way to grow in any space - and growing some staple herbs can save you so much money and plastic use. There’s nothing like snipping off your own herbs for a dish, cocktail or just decorating a table. All four of these herbs are easy to grow and maintain. In fact you can buy all of them as small plants from the herb section of the garden centre and they will last you years if you repot them into a bigger pot and harvest from them regularly (this stops them from going to seed). They are very easy to look after - keep in part shade and just ensure they have a water every now and then in summer.

Lemon Balm.

Possibly a massively underrated garden herb because it’s so easy to grow but has so many benefits. I like to squeeze a tip of a lemon balm bud between my fingers and inhale the scent when I feel stressed. Lemon balm is widely thought of a stress relieving herb and it’s lovely steeped in hot water as a tea to have a calming effect. It can also promote better moods and help with sleep.

Lemon balm can be used in many ways - my favourite is using the larger leaves in salads or making pesto from the abundance crop my plant gives me each year. You can also make anti viral tinctures and ointments with it. It also makes a lovely vinegar or dressing for fish dishes.

Lemon balm is a perennial and will die back in winter only to grow back in abundance in spring. It looks like a mint plant but can be prone to get leggy (like mine!) if not harvested from. As it grows vigorously it will benefit from being divided at the roots every few years.

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Garden Mint.

What even is a garden without a pot of garden mint growing? Incredibly easy to grow and so handy for so many things - an after dinner tea, crushed up in a mojito, made into salsa verde, whizzed up in a smoothie… it goes on.

Mint is an invasive plant to always grow in a pot - otherwise you’ll be taken over by it with it growing out of every crevice! It’s also a perennial and will also die back over winter only to happily return when the nights start drawing out.

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Rosemary.

Often seen as more of a winter herb but can be used for so much in the summer - I like to infuse water with it. It’s great for cooking but also for decorating - a spring looks gorgeous tucked in a napkin. Top pizzas or roast with it, bake potatoes with it or stick a sprig in a bottle of olive oil to jazz it up a bit.

It can be used around the home in many ways - sachets (use little canvas bags jewellery came in) filled with dried rosemary can keep drawers fresh. It’s such a beautiful way to decorate jars and can also be added to jars of cut flowers. Add it to a har of magnesium salts to use in a bath to relieve muscles.

Rosemary is a perennial but is an evergreen so you can harvest from it all year round. In the spring it sprouts delightful little purple flowers that you can use in baking. See the rosemary chocolate I love here.

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Sage.

Lovely sage! Also an evergreen, sage can be harvested all year. It does like a lot of water in the summer and will thrive in a sunny spot.

The silvery green leaves can be harvested frequently and dried to wrap up into sage sticks which when burned and blown out to let the sage scented smoke waft around, is said to cleanse and purify the air. I let springs dry on the windowsill before wrapping in string ready to smudge!

It also makes a great infuser for water but it’s famous use is culinary. It pairs with meat and heartier dishes with root vegetables. Perhaps my favourite use for it is a burned brown butter sage drizzle for pasta.

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