Can You Really Grow Supermarket Herbs?
We've probably all done it.
Picked up a beautiful pot of basil in the supermarket. Taken it home, put it on the kitchen windowsill and enjoyed that rather lovely feeling of having something fresh and green growing within arm's reach.
You brush past it and get that unmistakable smell of summer. You tear off a few leaves for dinner. You start thinking that perhaps you're rather good at this herb-growing business.
And then it wilts.
Sometimes spectacularly.
If this sounds familiar, please don't give up on supermarket herbs. That little pot of basil may not have been grown with a long and happy life in mind – but with a little attention, we can improve its chances enormously.
Look a little closer
Pick up your basil and have a proper look at it. What appears to be one wonderfully bushy plant is usually lots of tiny basil plants packed tightly together. It makes perfect sense from the grower's point of view. Lots of seedlings give us the lush, abundant pot we're tempted to put in our trolley.
But underneath all those lovely leaves is a rather crowded collection of roots, all competing for the same water, nutrients and space. Suddenly the wilting makes a little more sense.
Give it room
If you're planning to use the whole thing for pesto this weekend, you don't need to do anything. Enjoy it for exactly what it is.
But if you'd quite like to see how long you can keep it growing, give it some space.
You can move the whole plant into a larger pot filled with fresh peat-free multipurpose compost. Better still, with very crowded herbs such as basil, gently divide the root ball into three or four sections and pot them separately. Don't worry about separating every individual seedling. Gardening doesn't always require quite that level of determination.
Water your newly potted plants and give them a few days to settle.
They might sulk.
Plants do that.
Find the right windowsill
Most herbs like plenty of light, but supermarket basil has one particular request: please don't make it cold. Basil loves warmth. A bright kitchen windowsill can be perfect during the warmer months, but sitting against icy glass on a winter's night is another matter entirely.
Mint, parsley and coriander are generally less precious about temperature.
And here's something worth noticing. Plants on windowsills often lean towards the light. So give the pot a quarter turn every few days and you'll encourage more even growth.
It's one of those tiny gardening jobs that somehow becomes quite satisfying once you start noticing it.
Water the plant, not the calendar
Small supermarket pots contain very little compost, so they can dry out surprisingly quickly.
Put your finger into the compost. If it feels dry near the surface, water thoroughly and let the excess drain away. If it still feels damp, leave it alone.
The roots need water, but they need oxygen too. Permanently saturated compost leaves less space for air around the roots – which is why endlessly topping up the saucer isn't doing your herb quite the favour you might imagine.
Sometimes good gardening is simply knowing when to leave a plant alone.
So, how long should it last?
This depends enormously on the herb.
Basil is an annual. In good light and warmth, with regular picking, you could keep it productive for several months. But it isn't supposed to last forever.
Coriander is naturally short-lived and has a habit of suddenly deciding it's time to flower. Look to replace it about once every 4 or 6 weeks. Don't take it personally. Growing or buying replacements throughout the season is perfectly normal.
Parsley is a biennial and can happily grow for many months, potentially returning for a second year before flowering.
Mint is a perennial. Give it a larger pot and decent care and it can last for years. You may eventually wonder why you were ever worried about keeping it alive.
Rosemary and thyme are perennial too and, once established, can become long-term residents of your garden or patio.
Knowing the natural lifespan of a plant changes things. A basil plant eventually fading isn't necessarily something you've done wrong. Sometimes it has simply reached the end of its story.
Pick it!
Perhaps the nicest thing about growing herbs on the kitchen windowsill is that they're right there. Dinner needs parsley? Snip some. A few basil leaves would transform those tomatoes? Help yourself. And don't feel guilty about it. Regular harvesting encourages many herbs to produce fresh growth.
With basil, snip a stem just above a pair of leaves and you'll often see two new shoots developing from that point. It's a lovely little bit of plant biology happening right in front of you. And once you start noticing things like that, a supermarket herb stops feeling quite so disposable. It becomes a plant you're actually growing.
From Garden to Kitchen: Pesto, of course
It has to be pesto!
Take a generous handful of basil leaves and blitz them with a small handful of pine nuts, a handful of grated Parmesan, one small garlic clove, a good glug of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
Season, taste and adjust.
Too thick? More olive oil. Want it cheesier? More Parmesan. No pine nuts? Walnuts work beautifully.
Spoon it through pasta, over vegetables or onto fish.
And before you eat it, take a moment to smell it. Because that little pot that was sitting under supermarket lights not so long ago is now growing on your windowsill and has become part of dinner. And really, that's rather lovely.
Next time: Which Herbs Can I Plant Together? We'll look at which herbs enjoy the same conditions, which need a little more attention – and why mint is probably better off with a place of its own.
