THYME to try it!

Popped in a pot on the windowsill or planted near by, herbs will spice up your life and your cooking too

If you haven’t gardened before but are keen to give it a go, herbs

are a great place to start. They are incredibly easy to grow and packed with antioxidants and nutrients – plus you’ll always have fresh leaves on hand to add to your salads and cooking. Herbs are pretty resilient. Give them a decent patch of soil, some water and lots of sunshine, and they’ll stick around for quite some time.

Growing herbs from seed is easy and affordable, but if you’re new to this, it might be less intimidating to start with seedlings. Pop into your local garden centre to grab the selection you’re after and buy a couple of seed packets too. Get the soil ready by digging in organic matter such as compost or sheep pellets, plant the seedlings, then sprinkle a few seeds around them to get the ball rolling.

Inside or out?

Herbs grow well indoors, so get creative with planters (filled with a quality potting mix) to create an indoor edible garden. If you’re short on space, jump on the microgreens trend by planting herb seeds in pots and harvesting young shoots to add to salads. They’ll flourish on a sunny windowsill.

If you’d like to establish an outdoor kitchen garden, choose a sunny patch close to the kitchen for easy access when you’re cooking. Plant tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and mesclun, alongside herbs to grab all your salad essentials in one fell swoop. Keeping super-thirsty herbs such as mint, coriander and basil together makes sense too.