How To Freeze Fresh Herbs From The Garden

Author Judith Hann talk us through growing and caring for herbs in autumn...

In early autumn, my herb garden is still full of flowers and the insects that love them. I have marjoram, oregano, calamint, anise, hyssop and the vibrant nasturtiums and pot marigolds in bloom. Herbs should play a part in herbaceous borders too, because so many other garden plants have finished flowering.

1. Harvest and store herbs ready for cooking, teas, pot pourri and decorations

When the herbs eventually have to be harvested, I dry the flowers for pot pourri and dry leaves of mint, lemon balm, thyme and oregano to be stored in airtight jars for cooking and for making herb teas. The seeds of chervil, sorrel, lovage, sweet cicely, fennel, dill and hyssop are saved and dried. Some are used in cooking and all are sown in autumn or spring to produce more herbs. I also save the seeds of salad herbs to sow in the spring.

2. Take plant cuttings and tidy hedges

By early autumn I have clipped the lavender and dried its flower stems. I also cut back the long hedges of winter savory and wall germander, keeping some of the clippings to take hardwood cuttings. I also take cuttings from rosemary, thyme, tarragon and lavender.

How to take cuttings:

• Fill a pot with well-draining cutting compost (£7.28, Amazon), made by mixing sand with potting compost. Firm the compost just below the rim and water well. Do not overcrowd the pot with cuttings and keep to one type of herb, as they vary in how long they take to form roots.

• Choose sturdy non-flowering shoots with plenty of leaves. Use a very sharp knife and cut the base of the stem just below a node, leaving a shoot of 10–13cm/4–5in. Remove the leaves at the bottom of the stem, leaving at least two leaves at the top which are needed to feed the plant as it produces roots.

• Make a hole in the compost with a pencil or dibber and dip the stem in hormone rooting powder before putting it in the hole. I put the cuttings around the edge of the pot, making sure the leaves do not touch the compost as this can cause fungal infections; the rooting powder helps prevent this because it contains plant hormones and fungicide. Terracotta pots (£7.99 for 5, Amazon) are more successful than plastic pots in my experience.

• Label (£9.39 for 10, Amazon) and date and put the pot in a propagator, or cover with a plastic bag which is kept from touching the leaves by using a simple hoop or frame. Keep out of the hot sun. Only water from below and do it in the mornings, not at night. Check for roots after three or four weeks by giving the stem a gentle tug. If it resists, you can celebrate the creation of a new herb plant.

3. Be prepared for the first frost

Before the first frosts, I take the half-hardy herbs – like the scented geraniums, pineapple, tangerine and blackcurrant sages, lemon verbena and tricolour sage – into the greenhouse in their pots. I also put tarragon, mint and chives in pots to overwinter in the greenhouse, so they are ready for the kitchen before the same herbs growing in the garden.

4. Harvest summer herbs

I harvest basil and other herbs that will disappear underground in the winter. These are used to make pesto, tapenades, herb butters, sauces and soups. Others go in chutneys and spiced fruits, herb oils, vinegars and herb and apple jellies. This is the season when I harvest orchard fruits and autumn vegetables, like courgettes/zucchini and pumpkins, to cook with a variety of herbs.

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5. Thin salad herbs

The salad herbs I planted for winter use and the clumps of herbs, like garlic chives, marjoram and lovage, will need thinning. Then after a final weed I use my own compost on the beds, except in the areas where Mediterranean herbs like thyme and hyssop thrive in poor, free-draining soil. In early autumn, I sow more chervil and coriander/ cilantro seeds. The chervil likes shady areas, so I plant it along the north wall where my mints thrive.

6. Collect seeds

Collect seeds on a dry day and store in paper bags or large old envelopes in a dry place. With seed heads like lovage and fennel, hang them upside down in a paper bag tied lightly around the seed heads, so that the seeds dry and fall into the bag. Seeds will normally be ready within three weeks. When you harvest your herbs like oregano to dry for winter use, do not forget to harvest soft herbs too. But delicate herbs like dill, chives and tarragon will have to be frozen in water or oil in ice cube trays.

7. Tidy all herbs in late autumn

In late autumn, tidy up the herb area, removing dried up annuals like borage, coriander/cilantro or dill, saving seeds to dry and re-use. Autumn is the time to sow lovage, angelica, chamomile and fennel seeds outside. I leave seed heads on herbs like garlic chives and agastache. They look attractive and finches love the seeds for lunch.

8. Enjoy herby lunches

In the meantime, we lunch on autumn herbs like parsley, sage, sorrel, chervil, fennel, hyssop and marjoram. All the hard herbs like bay, rosemary, savory and thyme are also being used constantly in the kitchen. With a large, mixed orchard it is a very busy time, making several different herb jellies, spiced pears, plums and damsons and many different conserves.

9. Tame the mint

It is time to deal with the unruly mint, which inevitably has invaded herb beds and threatened less thuggish species. The real rogues are Bowles's mint, spearmint and Moroccan mint. They have to be dug up, root cuttings taken and many new mint plants produced.

After problems with them in the herb garden, I put these three thugs in a large metal farm drinking trough and divided it into three with metal sheets. They each had their own area, which they kept to for a couple of years.

Then one of them took over the whole trough, proving which mint is the biggest bully of all. It was Bowles's mint, which ironically has a very subtle taste in mint tea and mint sauce.

AUTUMN ACTION LIST

+ Cut back on watering herbs grown in containers.

+ Protect plants like bay and myrtles in outside containers with fleece or hessian and, if possible, move them to a south-facing wall for the winter.

+ Sow parsley seed inside with heat.

+ Take root cuttings of tarragon.

+ Divide herbs like marjoram, oregano, lovage, sorrel, chives, lemon balm and bergamot.

Extracted from Herbs: Delicious Recipes and Growing Tips to Transform Your Food by Judith Hann © Nourish Books 2017, commissioned photography by Tamin Jones, £16.89, Amazon.

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