2. How to start your herbgarden  

Herbgardening is not restricted to those with a large garden. All you need is a side of a pathway, an unused corner, a small patch by your kitchen window or a few large pots or containers. Herbs are generally not very demanding and are even often classified as weeds! In South Africa we are still quite spoiled by the amount of space available to us, for gardens. I attended one of Margaret Roberts’s talks one day, and she remarked that South Africans have an incredible amount of grass in their gardens. This, she felt, was such a waste as one cannot harvest grass for any useful purpose. I tend to agree with this. Grass has it’s usefulness when you have small kids, who like their games of soccer, cricket and rugby, but as they grow up the space is less likely to be missed and the fact that your son won’t have to mow the lawn so much, will be welcomed too!

Anyway, the thing to do is to decide where in your garden there is enough sun for your herbs. Most of the well-used herbs you will start of with, are sunloving plants. The preparation of your herb-patch is vital. If there was grass on your site before, make sure all roots are removed. Decide on the shape of your garden. If your patch is against a wall, you could incorporate a raised bank, or a centerpiece like a waterfeature or birdbath. However, I found that half the fun in planning my herb garden, was to see what I already had around the house to make my garden attractive. I had some bricks lying around and built a raised circular ‘pot’ in the one corner, to add interest. I invested in some large stepping stones at a later stage to make a more structured look and to stop me from having to stand in mud. A friend of mine had an old wagon wheel and she made a lovely circular feature with that. Railway sleepers can also be utilised as a walkway or used as edges for your raised beds. Anyway, you can follow your own imagination, or look through some of the examples, I’ll give you in this article. My garden has 3 pathways, flanked by a wide variety of herbs. I began by digging and loosening the soil and adding a royal amount of compost. At this stage it is ideal to add a fertiliser and dig this in as well.  I prefer to plant in raised beds, however if you cordon off your herb-beds with edging material like bricks or poles the plants will be easily accessible. After preparing your beds, I personally recommend that you leave your garden to ‘mature’ for a few days. This is especially good if you used a fertiliser, as young roots are easily burned by this medium in the soil.

The other thing I feel quite strong about is that whether you stay in an area where it gets very hot or if you have frost, you should invest in shade netting. Gumpoles can be used as supports. Netting will protect your valuable crop against any excessive weather changes.