Smart advice for siting and planting a herb garden

Even if you don't have room for a full-sized vegetable garden, you can probably find room to grow a few herbs to add freshness and flavour to your food. Here are some handy tips on where and how to grow herbs.

If you're planning to use herbs for cooking, select an area that is convenient to the kitchen door. If you just want to enjoy their beauty and aroma, or to attract bees, consider these options.

• Plant herbs at random in the garden, wherever there's a sunny spot, or create a dedicated area for them. You could grow them in beds of their own, arranged in rows with brick or stone paths in between the beds, or in a geometric pattern.
• Consider planting herbs in rockeries, where heat-loving varieties such as thyme will thrive. They can also be grown as borders along the edges of garden beds or paths, or in pots. Parsley, for example, looks great used in this way.
• To attract bees and other beneficial insects, grow herbs such as rosemary, lavender, coriander and dill in your vegetable garden.

• If space is limited, plant herbs in pots. You can also use troughs, tubs and window boxes.
• Use hanging baskets for herbs with a cascading or trailing habit, such as thyme, mint and oregano.
• Try growing herbs in a strawberry pot, which has planting pockets in the sides that are good spots for herbs. Put low-growing varieties, such as thyme, in the sides of the pot and taller ones, such as chives, in the top.
• Use containers for growing mint and other invasive herbs. Large troughs or recycled laundry tubs are ideal.

• Protect annual herbs from extreme summer heat by covering them with shade cloth or by misting the leaves.
• Avoid the problem of bolting – when a plant sends up flower stalks and goes to seed prematurely, making the herb lose its flavour and become bitter – by selecting bolt-resistant or slow-bolting varieties.
• Grow herbs at the correct time of year because temperature extremes may encourage bolting. Coriander, for example, is best grown in the cooler months, when it will develop more slowly.
• Sow dill seed directly into the soil. Thin the seedlings and harvest regularly, as crowded plants are more likely to bolt.
• Remove insect pests by hand and always wash herbs thoroughly before use in case any pests remain.
• As a last resort, use an oil spray or soap spray to get rid of pests. You can also try Dipel (Bacillus thuringiensis), a bacterium that will control caterpillars but is harmless to other insects.
• Trim back damaged growth and apply a liquid fertilizer and water to encourage new, undamaged growth.

Try growing basil, chives, dill, garlic, mint, oregano, parsley, rocket and thyme if you're new to herb cultivation – they're easy to cultivate and ideal for beginners.