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Pot Pourri and Strewing Herbs

Household products, pot pourri and strewing herbs

It is worth noting a few of their more handy uses around the home, though. Handfuls of fresh or dried herbs wrapped in cloth and tied under the hot tap create a wonderful and relaxing bath to finish off a hard day in the garden. Pot pourris are air fresheners made from dried herbs; special recipes are quoted needing exotic ingredients, but any dried herb in a bowl will eliminate unpleasant scents and give off its own aroma.

My favourite is based on lemon verbena leaves with some rose petals, eau de cologne mint and 'Herba Barona' thyme. Try whatever you have available. Dried herbs tied in bags keep pests out of drawers and cupboards, giving them a pleasant smell. Lavender is the best base for this.
Strewing herbs are better than pot pourri for scenting a room and ideal for floor coverings in potting sheds, where they give a pleasant – if dusty – atmosphere. They tend to get carted around on feet in the house. I prefer mints and cotton lavender for working areas, hyssop by the wellie rack. For the summerhouse and in my car footwells, thick layers of lavender create a tranquil atmosphere. In the fruit store I use southernwood to give a clean scent and drive away pests. The barbecue can scent the air and drive away gnats and flies if small bundles of fresh or soaked dried herbs are added to the coals. They can flavour, and smoke, the food as well.

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A Better Salad and Kohlslaw

Bored with the blandness of many salads, I experimented with adding fresh herbs to enliven them. I also reasoned that more varied foods, especially using more herbs, would provide healthier nutrition. Once I had started, I soon found the herbs outgrew the 'lettuce and cucumber' portion. During really hot summers when lettuce crops failed, I discovered that by blending many herbs I could make delicious salads without any lettuce or most other conventional saladings at all. The more herbs I blended, the better the overall taste, as long as I used the very bitter and strong herbs with the utmost moderation.

Although some of my more conservative friends have looked questioningly at these strange mixes, they have nearly always gone on to enjoy them. The basic principle is to use as many different edible herbs as possible without letting any one flavour dominate. Go to each herb and take small quantities and chop them fine. By varying the proportions the mix can be adjusted to suit most tastes.
Of course, for some people the flavour will be too strong, but this can be tempered by adding saladings to dilute the herbs. Much of the year it is possible to continually crop small amounts of very many different herbs, though the choice is not as wide in late winter and early spring. It is then that the hardier herbs and vegetables such as sage, rosemary, thyme, chives, cabbage and kale can be valuable by providing the most part of salads.

Super salad
Add, mix and adjust to taste as available. All should be finely chopped: Small amounts of rosemary, thyme, sage, marjoram, sweet cicely, summer savory, shungiku, coriander and fennel.
Large amounts of parsley, chervil, dill, French tarragon and basil. Lots and lots and lots of chives and rocket
Varying quantities to taste of mint, nasturtium leaves and flowers, purslane, iceplant, good King Henry, grated horseradish, land cress, citrus leaves, radicchio and alpine strawberries.
Mix all the above up thoroughly to be diluted with background saladings of: shredded carrot, grated red and green cabbage, shredded kohlrabi, chopped red, green and some of the hot peppers, cucumber and gherkin bits, tender curly kale leaves, corn salad, Claytonia and even lettuce, chicory, endive, almost any edible green, and baby peas. Then add pot marigold, day lily (Hemerocallis), pelargonium and shungiku petals, borage and rosemary flowers, some violets, pansies, bergamot and loads of rose petals. When ready to serve top with sliced 'Gardener's Delight' tomatoes and sprinkle over hull-less pumpkin, poppy, celery and sunflower seeds. I rarely use salad dressings on this, but prefer to serve it with a well-moistened dish such as taramasalata, humous, egg mayonnaise, etc. (I have also eaten, but cannot and do not recommend including, very small amounts of clary sage, salad burnet, lovage, hyssop, winter savory, lemon verbena, lemon balm and lavender.)

Toast topping
A very nutritious meal for those in a hurry. Soft boil an egg (or eggs), make some toast and chop up finely a handful of any tasty herbs, but especially chives and chervil. Put the chopped herbs in a small bowl and add (to taste) grated cheese, mayonnaise, salad cream or similar, some tomato ketchup and a dash of hot chilli or Worcester sauce. As soon as the egg is cooked, shell and chop it into the bowl, mix quickly and spoon onto the buttered toast. This goes well with the salad above and the kohlslaw below to make a mega-healthy meal.

'Kohlslaw'
This is like coleslaw but made from grated kohlrabi instead of cabbage, plus carrot, apple and onion, mixed with mayonnaise (or similar), a little garlic and paprika. I often add grated celeriac, red and green peppers and small amounts of dill and other herbs. This is a moist dish to complement salad or to go with baked potatoes or toast topping.

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Growing Citrus Fruits

Citrus trees wait a decade before fruiting when grown from pips, but grafted plants can be obtained which will fruit while small. These need frost-free conditions and are best in an open, gritty, rich, almost ericaceous, potting compost in large containers, preferably of terracotta or wood slat. The roots need good aeration, so drill multiple breathing holes in plastic pots. Citrus like nitrogenous feeds — I add fresh human recycled liquid fertiliser to their water once a week during the growing season. They should be watered copiously then allowed to drain and must never dry out. Citrus are easy to look after but suffer from aphids, spider mite and scale insects, so need regular careful inspection. A hard prune in late winter keeps them compact and provides propagation material. They do not like being under cover year round — put them outdoors in summer. Although, not cheap to buy, they can be multiplied by cuttings which fruit more readily than seedlings.

Epicurean attentions :

Marmalade is easy to make so I freeze all home-grown orange and lemon skins to add to a jelly made with yellow tomatoes and white currants. The flowers have such divine scent that the plants are worth having for this alone.

Lemons seem the easiest and can produce worthwhile quantities of fruit almost year round, 'Meyer's' is most reliable.

Satsumas are easy an produce delicious sweet fruits. Oranges, grapefruits and others require more warmth and bigger pots to do well but are still possible.

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Growing Kiwi

Kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa) is an edible-climber which needs a very warm wall or to be under cover to fruit. It takes up a lot of space, but has lovely leaves and attractive bristly stems, so allow it to ramble over a shed or pergola.

If it crops in a hot summer look on it as a bonus. Grown this way pruning is not required and kiwis have few pests or diseases. Under cover, they are only controlled by being grown in large pots. You must have a male as well as (several) females, though self-pollinating cultivars are becoming available.

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Growing Melons at Home

The best melons I grow outdoors are sown direct in a coldframe on top of a freshly made compost heap in late spring. In warmer regions than Britain, melons can be planted out where they like to ramble under sweet corn or sunflowers. On the ground, place young fruit on a piece of wood or tile to stop it rotting. Under cover, melons are usually trained up strong strings; the ripening fruits need to be supported in bags or nets.

Epicurean attentions:

Pick melons when they give off scent and the stalk will start to pull out. Chill for a day, or so, then gently warm just before serving.

Watermelons are even more difficult to grow than melons in a cold climate, but I just manage them in a heated coldframe and in my polytunnel. Watermelons are started much the same as indoor cucumbers and need similar conditions, but prefer a more open, gritty compost and need more sun and lots of water. They seem to be the ultimate spider mite attractant! Although not enormous, the home-grown fruit's texture and sweetness have amazed me. Try 'Sugar Baby' or 'Yellow Baby'.

How to Grow Cucumbers

Frame or indoor cucumbers need continuous warmth and moisture with a really rich soil for the best varieties, though there are some that will crop in warm, sunny frames in good seasons. Indoor cucumbers need sowing in pots in a heated propagator during late winter or early spring. Pot them up regularly until they are ready to plant in their final position. Take care not to let the neck, where the stem leaves the soil, get damaged or wet as it will easily rot. For this reason, cucumbers are best grown on a little mound of sterile compost. They trail like marrows, so can be grown up strong strings or wires. They must have continuous high temperatures, very high humidity and are prone to spider mite and mildew. Regular spraying with water and adding seaweed solution or nettle tea may help prevent downy mildew.

If indoor cucumbers are allowed to pollinate, the resulting fruits are bitter, so remove all male flowers (those with no tiny cucumber behind them) before they open so that the females are not pollinated. Female varieties occasionally produce a male flower, so it pays to be vigilant. The seed is expensive, but given the warmth and rich conditions cucumbers give very quick results and are very productive early in the year, when other things are still weeks away.

Epicurean attentions:

Pick cucumbers early in the morning before they warm up for maximum crispness.

Recommended varieties:

'Telegraph' is well known, 'Conqueror' which is tolerant of cooler conditions has long been popular for coldframes or unheated greenhouses. 'Pepinex 69' used to be my favourite but 'Carmen' and 'Aidas' are excellent and 'Petita' is superb! Melons are treated exactly the same as cucumbers, but need even more heat to keep them growing well. As with cucumbers, they will rot if the neck gets damaged or wet, so plant on a mound of sterile compost. Ideally, nip out the growing tip after four good leaves to produce side shoots. Later, in one go, pollinate one flower on each side shoot with a brush or cotton-bud to get even-sized fruits. Melons are even more prone to spider mite than cucumbers.

For more on growing cucumbers, click here.

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More Tips on Growing Aubergines

Aubergines or eggplants are related to tomatoes, potatoes and peppers, and often grown with the latter as they like the same warm conditions. However, they should be kept away from tomatoes and potatoes. This is definitely a greenhouse crop and needs continuous warm, moist, rich conditions. Sow in pots in warmth in early spring and repot monthly, then plant under cover in early summer at two foot or so apart. Aubergines need tying to canes to support the crop. They are prone to red spider mite and aphid attacks.

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Sweet Peppers and Chilli Peppers

Peppers, sweet and chilli are as easy to grow as tomatoes. In very sheltered, warm gardens they may even just succeed planted out of doors in southern Britain. Sow in pots, preferably in a propagator in early spring, repot monthly, plant under cover in early summer at a foot or two apart. They will need tying to canes to support the crop. Peppers even crop well in large pots under cover. They can get damaged by aphids early on, and watch for slug damage to ripening fruit.

Epicurean attentions

Most varieties go red when ripe. Chillis are often hotter the smaller the fruits. Peppers dry and store remarkably easily.

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