In June, you can pick and choose from the widest range of herbs that is available during the year. Add a tasteful touch to your entertaining by using garlic, thyme, coriander, basil, parsley and rosemary to olive oil to make marinades for barbecue food. Make your own salad dressings by adding basil, thyme, oregano or mint to olive oil and vinegar. Garnish butter with chopped herbs to add extra flavour to loads of dishes. Put life in your lettuce by adding basil, celeraic, chervil, chives, dill, nasturtium leaves, rocket, tarragon and thyme to salads. Many herb flowers may also be used in salads to great effect. Viola, pot marigold, nasturtium, chives, basil and borage to name a few.

With all that extra tasty food around chances are you’ll need something to keep the ‘mozzies’ away. Lookout for ‘Buzzorf’ or Tansy to keep flies away. Mint is also useful, while Pennyroyal or ‘Antoff’ will keep ants at bay.

If space in your garden is limited or you are looking for new ways with herbs then why not try one of our attractive herb hanging baskets. Or how about a trough or pot in a sunny position. Don’t forget we can make them up to order.

Lavender:

A sweet fragrance, neat foliage, and beautiful flower spikes that last all summer make lavender in all its forms an enduring garden favourite. Soft in texture and colour its an easy plant to find a space for. Lavender is a traditional companion for roses especially the old fashioned varieties.

Apart from the common varieties of ‘English Lavender’, L. ‘Hidcote’ and L. ‘Dwarf Munstead’, at Hennessy’s you will find less well-known but worthwhile varieties such as ‘Dutch Lavender’ L. angustifolia ‘Vera’, with grey leaves and stems and blue flowers. There are also several varieties of ‘French Lavender’, L. steochas and even some ‘Spanish Lavender’, L. steochas pendunculata, which just illustrates what an international favourite Lavender’s always been.
Lavender loves to bake in a hot sunny position in poor, stony soil. It hates a waterlogging, so if your soil is rich and deep, incorporate plenty of sand and gravel when planting.
Keep plants neat by giving them a light trim late in the summer.