Garden Centre

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Herb gardening again

The uses for herbs in the garden aren’t limited to food, although fresh herbs do improve the taste of any dish. Here’s some ways I use herbs to improve my garden or my hospitality!

• I have a lovely Angelica which thrives in semi-shade. The plant is supposed to reach six feet tall – mine never gets over two because I harvest it so regularly. You can candy the stems of one variety, angelica archangelica which you then use to decorate cakes, but I don’t have time for that – instead I make ice bowls with one smaller bowl (with its outside covered in a layer of cling film) inside a larger one, and water poured between the two. In the water I arrange the huge and delicately cut angelica leaves, so that when I take the ice bowl out and fill it with punch or fruit salad, the tracery of the angelica shows up like a wonderful Byzantine design. The flowers are gorgeous too, as this picture shows.

• Curly-leaved parsley looks brilliant as a lawn or bed edging and is particularly good when set against reds, oranges and yellows. It’s also a potent barrier against slugs and snails. If you find it difficult to germinate, dig a very shallow trench, sprinkle in your parsley seed and then pour boiling water on top – it works, believe it or not!

• If you find you have a gap in your garden, you can divide a clump of chives: either the common purple-flowered or the white-flowered garlic chive and plant them in the gap – cut them down to about two inches as soon as you’ve planted them and they will make a neat little clump within two weeks. They seem to thrive on this kind of behaviour.

Labels: angelica, chives, garden herbs, parsley

The All Seasons Gardener at 9:18 AM

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