The Kitchen Garden

Grow Your Own Herbs

It's easy to grow fresh herbs all year round and it's a great way to get the kids involved in gardening too. A handful of freshly picked herb leaves can transform salads and many other culinary dishes and also add vital vitamins and minerals to the diet.

Herbs are easy to grow, very rewarding and a great way to do gardening. The Kitchen Garden herb kit from Unwins is a brilliant way to get started. It contains seeds of four different and easy to grow herbs as well as pots and compost to get them started. You don't even need a garden or a greenhouse to grow them; this kit is ideal for a windowsill all year round.

The Herbs
This kit contains seeds of four tasty and easy to grow herbs:
Basil is a wonderful herb that combines well with tomatoes, salads and even strawberries. If you've a good crop you can easily make fresh pesto from the leaves or simply add them to salads and pasta dishes. It thrives in a Mediterranean climate and grows well in the summer when the weather is warm. Once established let the compost dry out a little between waterings and water in the morning if possible rather than at night.
Coriander is a very tasty herb that transforms salads and spicy dishes. It is also very easy to grow from seed and will produce a healthy crop of leaves that can be harvested regularly throughout the season. Sow a little once a month for a continuing crop and pick regularly to keep a constant supply of fresh herbs .
Chives are perennial herbs that make an excellent addition to salads, soups and other meals. They are easy to grow and quickly create a clump of shoots that can be harvested throughout the season. Outdoors this herb will die back for the winter and the roots will stay alive underground to re-sprout again in the spring. When your indoor plants have died back, plant the rootball outside to create a perennial crop in the garden.
Parsley is a popular garden herb. It can be slow to germinate but once you've got a few plants established it goes on producing tasty fresh leaves all season. Plants can be transplanted outside when growth has slowed. Parsley is a biennial, which means that it will flower in its second year of growth, and then set seed. Sow a new crop each month from fresh seed to produce a continuous supply of fresh leaves and transplant tired plants into the garden where they will continue to create fresh leaves.

How to grow

The Kitchen Garden herb kit from Unwins contains everything that you need to sow and grow a crop of all of these herbs.

Simply fill the plastic pots with the compost provided, leaving about 1cm gap below the rim of the pot. Sprinkle a few seeds of each herb onto the compost surface. Don't sow the whole pack, save some for future sowings. Cover over the seeds you have sown with a thin layer of compost. Water gently using a watering can filled with tepid water. Place the pots into the wooden trough and position on a warm windowsill or somewhere else that is in good light. Keep the compost slightly moist, but avoid overwatering. Do not leave the pots standing in water. As the plants start to grow harvest the leaves as required. To create a continuous crop sow a few seeds once a month into fresh compost and news pots and treat in the same way.

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