Herbs for the home garden
While Greenwood and Brouwer grow 60 different herbs on their farm, it’s not essential to have a large space to grow a nice selection of herbs. Plenty of medicinal herbs can be grown successfully in the home garden, keeping in mind a few key factors: Herb selection It’s important to choose herb varieties suited to your climate. Some herbs are suited to warmer climates while others will grow better in cool climates.
Compost Good quality compost is essential. A compost rich in manure will help improve the nutritional and medicinal quality of herbs. Harvesting Herbs are harvested for their flowers, leaves, berries and roots. For home gardeners growing small quantities of herbs, it’s usually easy enough to harvest by hand, although reaping hooks or scythes can help with larger quantities of leaves.
Drying Many herbs can be used fresh from the garden. However, if you’d like to dry your herbs it’s recommended that they be dried over three to four days in a dry environment free from moisture and humidity. Greenwood says most herbs will grow in a broad range of climates but will do best in their preferred climatic conditions. “Sometimes we can successfully alter our garden’s growing setting by providing semi-shade from summer sun, shelter from frosts or use raised beds to provide optimal drainage,” she says. Here are five medicinal herbs recommended by Greenwood that you might like to try at home.
Peppermint
Part of the Lamiaceae family, peppermint is commonly used to aid digestion and is a popular herbal tea. Greenwood says it is important to source the correct ‘Black Mitcham’ variety if you are growing for herbal tea. “Peppermint expects a lot but gives the same, so provide plenty of good quality compost and regular water and it will produce abundantly from late spring through to autumn,” she says. “After taking your harvest of healthy tips and leaves, make sure to cut the remaining stubble right back to just above the soil surface. This breaks any disease cycles and forces new vigorous shoots from underground.”
• Best in temperate and warmtemperate climates.
Calendula
A member of the daisy family, calendula flowers range in colour from pale yellow to deep orange and are used for their healing properties. “Calendula is really easy to direct sow in spring,” Greenwood says. “But it is important to keep harvesting your flowers every few days to ensure they do not go to seed until late in the season. This will optimise the volume of flowers you will obtain from your plants. There is often a natural variance of size and colour of the flowers between plants, so mark the best plants in mid-season to enable you to collect their seeds for the following year.”
• Copes with most climates, but prefers mild summers.
Lavender
Lavender originated from the Mediterranean and is known as a calming and relaxing herb. Greenwood says for herbal tea and culinary use, choose Lavandula angustifolia. “Our favourite variety is ‘Egerton Blue’, it’s very low in camphor, has a stunning colour and a lovely delicate flower. Lavender loves full sun but does not cope with wet feet for extended periods, so a well-drained location is best.”
• Lavender is adaptable to most climates other than tropical and subtropical regions where it is unlikely to flower well.
Marshmallow
Known as a soothing and healing herb, marshmallow is a perennial plant said to have been used by the ancient Greeks. “The roots, when grown in good friable soil, grow to about 60cm long, as thick as your thumb,” Greenwood says. “Wash well then cut into 15cm lengths, spilt down the middle and dry in a warm sunny spot.”
• Prefers a mild summer and regular watering to produce good quality leaves and roots.
Burdock
Burdock is traditionally used as a detoxifying herb and the roots are also eaten in Japan as a nutritious food. It can be an invasive plant, so be sure to keep it contained. It is a heavy feeder, requiring a good supply of water and nutrients and is best grown in an open friable soil for ease of root digging come winter.
“Don’t underestimate the size of burdock’s large leaves when planting out your patch or they may well overshadow their neighbours,” Greenwood says. “We dig our burdock crop root in June every year. The cleaver burrs on the seed head will stick to everything – jumpers, cats, dogs and sheep included. So once the burdock has finished flowering and the bees have enjoyed the best of them, it’s wise to remove the seed heads from the plant to avoid the seeds being spread to unwanted areas of your garden of farm.”
• Burdock has been known to thrive in a wide range of climates.
