Recently we had mention of the delicate herb basil. You have to admire enormously those people who are spreading the good news of the value of organic food production, as at Rossinver, Co Leitrim. And to note from their literature that they even come down to giving a hand to those whose idea of herb-growing does not, or maybe cannot, go beyond a few pots or window-boxes. For a cuisine without fresh herbs - valuable as the dried versions are in winter - is unimaginable to many people. They do tell you it can be fun to design and make a small, informal, herb garden and in their literature include a few sketches of possible layouts. The presence of a big dog or a few cats may inhibit you.
They give valuable advice about the appropriate or next-best soil. Most herbs, they tell you, do best in a neutral to alkaline fertile soil which is free-draining. A sheltered but sunny position is preferable. Now, while many herbs originate in a dry climate, there has to be a decent level of fertility if you are to be regularly picking and coming again. They recommend garden compost or farmyard manure (well rotted). Some pot-growers regularly introduce a mix of heavy sand or stone chips.
If you are the typical pot-grower, you will probably confine your efforts to half-a-dozen or so well-tried favourites. One such household has chives as its staple. Half a dozen moderatesized pots, regularly cut, re-cut and nourished. The next regular is winter savory, which is consumed winter, summer, autumn and spring. You need to keep a few pots going for that. All are bought as plants in pots and then repotted. They last for several years in most cases, but then, of course, some are always resting, so to speak.
The only herb grown from seed is chervil; in many ways the most rewarding. For, with frequent sowing, some admittedly in a frame, it lasts practically through the whole winter, sometimes even surviving frost or snow. Parsley, tarragon, hyssop are also in pots. Around the garden, apparently indestructible are mint, lemon balm, sage, rosemary. And nobody can remember when or how they first came to be there. Herbs are a life study.