Home-grown basil
For me, there’s nothing more rewarding than using home-grown herbs. It pleases the wannabe hobby farmer lurking within. So what is it that’s attractive about growing my own herbs? Well, I like that I’m saving the $2-plus per bunch for cut herbs from the greengrocer (which don’t last long) and only using what I need, so there’s less waste. But mostly what’s appealing is the simple pleasure that I’ve created a green space on an inner city balcony, I’m reaping the rewards of my garden, and enjoying the superb fragrance, taste and freshness of eating herbs that were living just moments ago.
The first of the birdseye chillies starting to ripen.
Jim and I have been fortunate enough to have a successful balcony herb garden for several years now. How we’ve managed this, I’m not sure because it doesn’t take a lot of input from us—regular watering and occasionally applying extra nutrients, checking for pests, pruning if needed (although that’s usually covered just by cutting what’s needed for cooking). I would say easily less than 30 minutes a week spent tending to it.
On our productive little patch (a 3m² balcony garden that only gets the morning sun) we grow three types of chillies—birdseye, habanero and Apache chief (Jim is a chilli freak)—basil, mint, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, sage, lemon thyme, thyme, oregano, garlic chives and rosemary.
Even after all this time, I still find it satisfying each time I go and collect what I need for a recipe. Jim can attest that I frequently comment on the wonderful taste and smell of our fresh pickings. It amazes me that we can do this in such a small space and get so much out of it. It’s very rare that we have to buy fresh herbs to supplement our in-house supply, and this was always my goal with the balcony garden.
The new balcony garden potted with beetroot, silver beet, lettuce, coriander, rosemary and bay.
Now I’ve decided to turn my hands to the larger space on the back balcony we use for entertaining. Gone are the pots of colourful petunias, snapdragons and alyssums now past their best, replaced with beetroot, silverbeet, lettuce, coriander and another rosemary plant. I’m hoping that the different varieties of multi-coloured beetroot and silverbeet will brighten up the space as much as the flowers did.
I had started this process a few months ago, swapping out a sad looking palm for a bay tree to see how it would handle the very hot and drying conditions of a balcony that gets the harsh afternoon sun. The experiment went well—it has doubled in size in that time despite my stealing its leaves for cooking.
I’m sure that the rosemary will love its spot but not sure how the softer foliage of the others will go. Stay tuned! And any advice is gratefully accepted…