There are plenty of reasons to grow herbs – and here are some of them!
RHS EDUCATION
W hy are house plants, especially herbs, amazing? They all have powers!
Sound - they can absorb sound, giving you and your neighbours more privacy and blocking out road noise.
Smell - imagine the benefits of a room smelling of basil, rosemary, lavender or mint.
Health benefits - many scientific studies demonstrate lavender and rosemary calm stress and anxiety. Mint and basil naturally freshen the air and can help with indigestion.
Most importantly they are delicious. Spring is the perfect time to start making herbal housemates to use in lots of different ways, from flavouring a hot meal or salad, to using as garnish in a cocktail.
One of my favourite herbs is basil, you can grow it from seed, keep harvesting it well into autumn and it freezes well. I love how different the varieties taste, from the sweet used for pesto, garnish and more, to more spicy and rich flavours perfect for a curry. Four popular varieties grown at Bridgewater are Basil ‘Genovese’, ‘British’, ‘Bush’, ‘Liquorice’ and ‘Thai’.
How to sow basil seeds
Before you start, get some peat-free seed compost, seed tray, seeds and sand.
Pop the compost into your reusable seed tray and water it well. Watering beforehand saves you splashing compost and freshly sown seeds everywhere afterwards!
Basil seeds are tiny and the same colour as the wet compost so mix them with a bit of sand, then lightly sow them onto the surface of your compost. You can see what you are doing and that way you don’t sow too many seeds.
Press the seeds firmly onto the surface of the compost using a pot/jar or the back of your hand.
Put the tray on a warm, bright windowsill to help the seeds germinate – basil needs temperatures from 15-25 degrees to get going.
Seedlings take four to eight weeks to appear, depending on how sunny it is, so be patient. When they do pop up, water about once a week. Feel the soil first, only water if it is dry. You need to pot them on when the true leaves grow up from the seedling. I usually use a 9cm pot and add a slow release fertiliser at this point. Once they’ve grown on, you can start to enjoy your tasty basil!
About Charly
Charly Bourne is an Edibles Horticulture Professional Work Placement (PWP) at
