Sowing and growing annual herbs

Big pots of leafy, flavoursome and generous annual herbs sitting at your back door where you can reach out and pick them for your cooking are one of the delights of your North Berwick kitchen garden. When you grow your own, you can have as big a bunch of parsley as you want: and even better, you can try more unusual herbs like caraway, summer savory, dill and chervil.

Here's how to make sure you have pots and pots of flavour from one end of the year to the next:

• Sow little and often so you've always got a new tray of seedlings ready in the wings to take over once the previous crop finishes. Plant half a row, or a new container once a month from March to September for year-round flavour.
• Keep parsley in the shade - if it gets too hot and dry it'll quickly flower and run to seed. The pretty aniseed-flavoured chervil, which looks a little like cowparsley, is another plant that likes cool, shady conditions.
• Pick leaves frequently as this encourages fresh growth.
• Herbs - such as Basil, Parsley and Coriander when left to grow unchecked will flower and that turns the leaves bitter. By nipping out the tips every few days you'll keep the sweet, fragrant young foliage coming.
• Coriander doesn't like being transplanted so you'll get best results from seed or pot-grown seedlings that can be transplanted without disturbing the roots. If you haven't got a spot in the garden, just sow the large, round seeds directly into a trough or generous container to grow into a fountain of lush, spicily scented greenery for flavouring Asian cookery and salads.
• Make a late sowing to bring indoors in around September, and you'll have fresh herbs to pick from the kitchen windowsill all through winter. Parsley and basil are perfect for this: pick them sparingly and they should keep going till spring.

​Please ask the staff in our North Berwick garden centre for more information and advice about sowing and growing annual herbs.