Topic: Windowsill herbs

[caroline7758]

I try to keep a regular supply of basil, coriander and parsley in pots on the kitchen windowsill, grown from seed. So far, I have never bothered thinning them out other than to pull out any seedlings that are obviuosly too close together, but I wonder whether I'd get more growth by potting up.  When I look at the pots fromthe supermarket they seem to be grown very close but still have more leaves than mine,although of course they don't last as long.What does anyone else do?

[teresa]

I have transplanted basil into black flower buckets works well and parsley into the borders to edge them if you cut the flowering bit off they keep going.

[KathrynH]

I start them off in one or two pots then as they grow transplant them so that there are about 3 seedlings per pot. I find that gives them more room to grow and you get sturdier, healthier plants with better leaves to pick for cooking.

[Bjerreby]

I do it nature's way. I only grow them outside.

I pluck sage, rosemary, thyme and parsley all year from the garden.

Coriander lasts reasonably well in the cold frame, but at some point it dies down, so  I freeze a few bags before the plant flowers. The same with chives.

Marjoram dies down outside, but early summer cuttings in the cold frame stay very bushy and green all winter (I grow them in seaweed, which they absolutely love).

Basil does fine against my south wall between June and September, and even better in a cold frame. I plant about 25 pots, one per pot, and freeze it . It tastes good with flowers on, but better without.

Those supermarket products are stressed plants. somebody scatters too many seeds in a pot, causing over-crowding, and then the poor things are stood under growing lamps 24 hours a day so they can shift them on as soon as possible. Ugh.