The herbs you actually use are the ones growing nearest the kitchen door. A bed or a cluster of pots within a few steps of the cooker means you snip rosemary for the roast and mint for the new potatoes without even reaching for shoes.
Match the herb to the spot
Herbs fall roughly into two camps, and putting each where it is happy is half the battle. Get this right and they all but look after themselves.
- Sun and dry soil: rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano.
- Richer, moister soil: parsley, chives, basil, coriander.
- Keep contained: mint, which runs everywhere if planted free.
Beds or pots
A sunny, well-drained bed is ideal for the Mediterranean herbs, which hate sitting wet over winter. If your ground is heavy, a collection of pots and troughs lets you give each herb the gritty or rich compost it prefers, and you can move the tender ones under cover.
Containing the bully
Mint deserves a special warning: plant it loose in a bed and it will colonise the lot within a couple of seasons. Sink it in a bottomless bucket, or simply keep it in its own pot, and you tame it while still having all you can use.
Pick to keep it productive
Most herbs grow bushier the more you pick them, so do not be shy. Regular snipping keeps basil from flowering and chives from going to seed, and a light trim of the woody herbs after flowering stops them turning leggy and bare.