That’s a gift that’s supposed to belong only to pregnant women and witches
Posted in General on 30. Jul, 2010
That’s a gift that’s supposed to belong only to pregnant women and witches. But I have found that by sowing in summer, rather than spring, you end up with a longer supply of leaves. This crop (a variety called ‘Curlina’ from Marshalls, 83p) was sown on 9 June last year. A few weeks ago, after a fortuitous shower of rain, I put in some flat-leaved parsley (Marshalls, 49p) which is not as pretty, but has a better flavour.I hesitate to say that I grow parsley well.
It includes the wild hedgerow plant Queen Anne’s lace, as well as other herbs such as angelica and fennel.Mine is looking very umbelliferous at the moment, having shot up to seed. It is stalwart in drought and never flags.The herb I use more than any other is parsley, though coriander is fast leaping up the list of favourites Parsley belongs to the huge family of umbellifers. It also looks good dividing up the different compartments of a herb garden Plants are easy to raise from seed, sown in spring For an edging, set the plants 7in to 8in apart. In the wild, it favours chalky soil, but will thrive in any well-drained garden soil in sun or light shade.
Well, you wouldn’t expect a beady old Yorkshireman to waste good money on a drying-out clinic, would you?You could use burnet as Tudor gardeners did, to make an edging for paths. Writing in The Flora of West Yorkshire, published in 1888, the naturalist Frederick Lees said that burnet, infused in water, was much used around Ripon “as a cure for, or an alleviant of, drunkard’s thirst”. The plant Bacon wrote about is salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) a hardy, evergreen perennial about 18in tall, with very pretty leaves divided into pairs of frilled, cut leaflets In summer it produces spikes of dark crimson flowers They sound showy, but they aren’t. And to get the best from burnet, you need to keep cutting it to prevent it from flowering.The leaves can be added to salads – they taste of cucumber – or bashed about with other herbs to make herb butters and sauces.
Use side shoots about 2in or 3in long with a heel attached and line them out in friable, sandy soil.Burnet is now much less common in gardens than mint or thyme. Get into the habit of cutting down some of the shoots in June to encourage plenty more new leaf for the rest of the season Take cuttings of thyme now, if you have not already done so. Francis Bacon would have tiptoed through his thyme alley as a special treat, not on a daily basis.The taller-growing lemon thyme is particularly good for stuffings and herb bread. Don’t expect it to put up with the regular traffic of children’s bikes or football. There are red- and white- flowered forms and a very pretty pink one called ‘Annie Hall’ The least successful is one called ‘Goldstream’. It has golden, variegated leaves that jar hideously against the pinkish-mauve flowers.Though thyme will put up with being crushed underfoot, it does not thrive on it.