Kitchen Herb Garden Update

So, as promised, I have an update that I have been planning for quite a long time.

You may remember that I saved a couple of plastic trays that meat comes in from a supermarket, put some soil in them, and planted a couple of different herbs in each compartment.

Also, my girlfriend bought some Greek herbs for a dish one day, which I added to the windowsill collection.

I have had a mixed bag of results, and here is my report:

The Greek herbs, a little brown but still smelling INCREDIBLE

The Rosemary (in the back compartment) never grew at all, but the Thyme is looking good.

The Sage has managed to grow two relatively successful plants.

The Basil was growing ok, but then died (I didn't let it die, this happened despite regular watering and careful care).

As you can see, this has not been a raging success, and I haven't yet actually used any of these herbs (such as I have grown) in any cooking.

I would like, here, to pass on a couple of tips that I have been told by various people in response to some of the questions I have posted on this blog over the last few weeks.

First of all, regarding harvest time for parsnips, apparently they should be pulled after the first frost.

Secondly, regarding onions, apparently if you sow with seeds in autumn, and leave the sets in the ground, next year you get even better onions.

So there you are, a couple of hints for you.

Enjoy, back tomorrow.

Edit thanks to @clareyh for the following:

"Did you know not to water basil until it droops? And it hates having wet feet!"

and

"Best one I had I put in a large pot with 2"gravel at bottom and only watered when it was drooping Lasted 3yrs on windowsill 13" high"

So now we know why my basil is dead dead dead :( oh well, better luck next year :)

A kitchen windowsill herb garden

I have been planning on using some of those plastic trays that food comes on nowadays as planters for some "picking" herbs to sit on the kitchen windowsill, and today I got the 10 mins I needed to get this done.

I filled each tub half full with compost

And then planted, by dibbing a 5mm hole, a couple of seeds in each hole. I have Rosemarry, Thyme, Sage and Basil (last not pictured)

And finally watered each bed liberally.

All four are now sat on my windowsill; I will report back on progress.

In other news I have planted a couple of planters with Lettuce

I've planted about 10 plants in each planter, and will thin the seedlings to retain 4 or 5 per planter.

I did a bit of weeding around the garden this evening, and removed the plaster tunnel from over the carrots and parsnips as they are looking far more established now.

I also took a couple of quick photographs of things I saw while clearing around the garden.

A flower on our Chives

A cluster of buttercups in rough ground near the potato patch

Finally for today, one of my twitter contacts @pipcymru has asked me to post a question to you all as he is having a bit of an issue with last year's raspberries coming through his grass.

They were planted in a wooden barrel last year, but have now appeared with new sprouts through the grass.

If anyone has any thoughts how to deal with this please leave a comment, or contact him direct on the twitter account above.

Edit: thanks to andy, the advice given is, if you do not want to rip up your grass, just cut back the growth regularly and this will starve the roots.

Cheers for reading.