The sun has worked wonders in the herb garden this year.
Some favourites, such as rosemary, thyme, marjoram and savory, thrived particularly strongly, the leaves bearing a much more intense flavour than usual, the plants bursting with flowers and the scent being out of this world. It was almost like being transported to the Mediterranean.
More water-dependent plants like sorrel and fennel also responded well to the warm weather, their deep roots seeking out enough moisture to allow uncommonly strong growth. Reaching 71 inches (180cm), my fennel plant produced a profusion of stems with umbels of yellow flowers - the perfect foraging ground for migrating warblers. With luck and more sun, we might also get a good haul of aniseed-flavoured seed.
Garden sorrel has been every bit as productive, producing much larger and lusher leaves than normal. As I always cut back any flowering stems, I was rewarded with a new flush of refreshing lemony leaves, and during the dry spell I didn't have to share them with the neighbourhood molluscs. Even wild sorrel (Rumex acetosa), which grows in the orchard, has larger leaves than normal.
This has certainly been a year for big leaves, and basil has been no exception. Until now, I've always thought the name "lettuce-leaved basil" was overly ambitious, but not this year. My specimen produced succulent 20cm-long leaves crammed with flavour, followed by secondary ones reaching 15cm. Greek basil, which has much smaller, pungent leaves, also responded to the consistent warmth in the greenhouse by growing into a sturdy, productive little bush.
When we see what can be achieved when the sun shines, it's worth trying out risky ideas next year - we might get another good summer. Galangal, a member of the ginger family, only works here as a house plant. My huge, tender plant ventures as far as the greenhouse in summer but returns indoors for winter, and its large root system means it needs to be divided every couple of years. More in hope than expectation, I stuck a clump in the open ground, where it's growing vigorously, even after a few cold nights.
As a general rule, coriander usually needs greenhouse protection in summer, but, again, my plants have done well in the open ground.
French tarragon is normally confined to a pot so it can have greenhouse shelter when needed, but I gambled on the open ground, where it was much more productive than usual. So next spring, put one in a pot as insurance against a poor summer, and another in the garden where it may prosper.
Last year I planted a Sichuan pepper, Zanthoxylum simulans, the only spice you can grow in the UK according to the writer James Wong. The mild winter undoubtedly helped, but it has grown prodigiously, providing lots of pickings of tender young shoot tips. As a bonus, its prickly older shoots are shunned by voracious goslings. It's outgrowing the pot, so is destined for the open ground in the hope of flowers.
Inevitably, there have been some losers, northern plants that can't handle the warm weather. Mints simply failed to produce side shoots once the terminal clusters had been picked. Leaf celery and parcel flowered prematurely, so I had to cut them back as early as July. After the rain, they stumbled into life and may produce an autumn flush.
Annual rocket (Eruca sativa) readily bolts in hot weather, so I stopped sowing in May as we usually rely on the perennial rocket (Diplotaxis muralis) over the summer. But even the latter was struggling during the hottest weather, despite having a reputation for growing out of walls.
Failures notwithstanding, give me a good summer any time.
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