Herbs and Gardening

In a change from my usual food and recipe posts, I’m writing about herbs and my garden this week. The garden plays a big part in what happenes in the kitchen throughout the year and particularly over the summer and autumn months.
As long as I’ve had a garden, it’s always been a case of work in progress, and I think that’s probably the case for most people if they have a sizeable garden. I’ve had this garden for 26 years and although over that time we’ve put our own stamp on it, we’ve also made lots of mistakes.

Some plants failed to thrive, others just didn’t survive and my ambitions for a Mediterranean style garden in the West of Scotland saw the demise of plants that really weren’t suited to the garden.

Some area’s suffered from too much shade, others from bad drainage, and then there was the flock of free range chickens whose love of my herbs and salads led to the name ‘peck and come again.

The recent spell of warm weather has been a real boost for the plants and this year the herbs have got off to a particularly good start.

This fennel plant is well established and every year produces a healthy crop which is well used in many of the fish dishes I cook and is a delicious addition in salads. Apart from cutting back and removing the old woody stems it seems to take care of itself. Fennel is drought resistant but as you can imagine, that’s not a problem in my Scottish garden.

Sage is a herb I’m never short of and this plant will need to be cut back next spring. It started off as a small plant and has completely taken over the top of one of the beds. I tend to use sage with chicken and pork; it’s always in my Christmas sage and onion stuffing and fried leaves pair beautifully with butternut squash, particularly if it’s with ravioli and melted butter. It also dries well and leaves can be frozen.

This bed has a bit of a mixed bunch of herbs – parsley, lemon verbena, red veined sorrel and there’s a new cornflower plant peeping through in the background.  Parsley is a herb I can never have enough of and try to grow as much as possible throughout the year. It’s so versatile and makes its way into soups, sauces and casseroles, sometimes on a daily basis and always on a weekly basis. It’s great with many fish dishes and can also be found in many of my pasta dishes.

The red veined sorrel is new to the garden this year and will most likely be used in salads. The sharp tangy flavour makes it useful addition to fish dishes and sauces. I’ll report back on how I use it although if you have any ideas, please leave me your comments at the bottom of this post.

Lemon balm is a herb I’ve always grown, mainly for the aroma rather than for culinary use. The leaves have a very uplifting smell and on a summers day it’s nice to run your hands through and inhale. As it’s part of the mint family I’ve been thinking of adding it to iced water to make a refreshing drink. Perhaps it’s time to make more of an effort to use lemon balm in the kitchen as it will add a delicious lemon flavour, particularly in sweet dishes.

As a family of lamb lovers, one herb I’m never without is rosemary and this picture shows a small rosemary hedge I had grown along the edge of one of the beds. Unfortunately it was attacked by a pest last year and the entire hedge and the curry plant growing along side had to be dug up.  Since then, I’ve planted several plants in containers and most of them seem to flourishing this year. Rosemary and garlic are essential partners with roast lamb and I regularly chop rosemary sprigs to add to roast potatoes.

I’m not growing as many vegetables this year but have set myself a challenge to be completely self sufficient in salads.

To ensure success I’m doing this in 3 ways. I’ve been making regular sowings of mixed cut and come again salads, both indoors and outdoors and I bought a few established plants that have already been planted into the beds.

Check back next week to see how the salad project is growing.

Growing some of my own food is always something I’ve enjoyed and although far from being self sufficient, I manage to keep the kitchen partially stocked with some of my efforts. On reflection, I’m definitely on the ‘could do better’ list, but this year, despite the current weather and winter flood damage, things are looking pretty good in the Wee Pinch of Sugar garden.

Whether this years spoils will match my previous efforts, remains to be seen but progress, albeit slow, is being made. An old injury means I’m unable to do any heavy work but I’m ably assisted by Mr G who happily acts as labourer, digging and planting when I need help. As they say, every job needs a gaffer.

This year I’m keeping a photographic record of the progress, as when winter sets in and plants die back, it’s easy to forget what it looked like during spring and summer. There’s also the added problem of the younger dog stealing the plant markers.

I’ve also embarked on planting edible plants and herbs in different parts of the garden and the long term plan is to convert as much of the garden over to this style of planting. What I now need is for temperatures to rise to allow the summer vegetables to grow and to encourage growth in the new herbs and edible plants.

Here’s a snapshot of what I have going on at present.

Some new apple tress have been added this year, including some heritage varieties. The lone pear tree is having a new partner as it’s lonesome existence has prevented the production of fruit.

Rhubarb and Sweet Cicely are side by side and the rhubarb is growing magnificently.

The gooseberries, blueberries & currants have lots of flowers and fruit is forming on the gooseberry bushes.

There’s also a wide selection of herbs growing and I’ve also planted some edible flowers this year. One major casualty was the rosemary hedge which was lost as a result of a fungus. New plants have been planted in a different part of the garden and I will need to add more as rosemary is a regular addition to my cooking.

The edible flowers include borage, cornflowers, marigolds and there’s still a few patches of wild garlic. The white flowers make a lovely addition to salads.

The lovage on the left has really taken off this year and the sorrel is also establishing a good plant. The angelica is new this year but is already looking healthy.

There a four mints, some growing better than others. Spearmint, chocolate mint, Indian mint and ginger mint.You can never have enough mint and over the summer I have a plentiful supply of mint tea.

There’s Greek oregano and golden oregano growing and I use lots, both dried and fresh in the kitchen.

Thyme is one of my favourites I have plants in pots and in the ground as I use so much of it. ‘;Alongside the common garden thyme, there’s lemon thyme and caraway thyme. All great for using in the kitchen.

Sage seems to grow well in the garden and the large broad leaved sage has survived a few years although it’s starting to get a bit woody. There’s also purple sage and a new addition is the blackcurrant sage in the pot.

Over the next few weeks, the runner beans and courgettes will get planted and the salads and strawberries that are in tubs will hopefully benefit from some much needed warmer weather. It’s always very satisfying to eat what you’ve grown. Fingers crossed and who knows what the next pictures will show.