5 must-have herbs for every garden

When you're planning your spring garden, include the herbs that you most commonly toss into your cart at the grocery store. Enjoy the satisfaction of using the fresh, organic and readily available flavours produced right in your home.

• Perennial in its native tropics; grows as annual in temperate climates. Green leaves, three to five centimetres long.
• Has a scent like cloves and is attractive in herb gardens or borders
• Repellent to mosquitoes.
• Good companion for tomato plants.
• Has white or purplish flowers in late summer.
• Miniature variety, O. basilicum minimum, only 30 centimetres high.
• Makes a good pot plant.

Type: Tender annua.

Height: 30–60 cm.

Spread: 30 cm.

Location: Sun, in light, rich soil.

Planting: Sow seeds near sunny window or in greenhouse in early spring.

• Transplant to garden in early summer, or sow seeds directly in garden in late spring.

Harvesting: For immediate use, take two or three leaves at the base of each branch before flowers bloom.

• Remove flower buds to encourage leaf growth.
• To obtain larger sections for preserving, cut plants to 15 cm once or twice.

• An ancient spice whose seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs and were used in Rome to preserve meat.
• Parsley-like leaves and rosy white flowers are attractive, but their odour is unpleasant until aromatic seeds ripen.

Type: Hardy annual.

Height: 45 cm.

Spread: 15–25 cm.

Location: Full sun, in soil with good drainage.

Planting: Sow seeds in early spring, 5 mm deep in rows 30 cm apart.

• Thin established seedlings to 15 cm apart.

Harvesting: Pick young leaves as cilantro. Cut seed heads when ripe.

• Light green plume-like foliage stands out against blue-green stems.
• Yellow umbrella-shaped flower heads, developing in midsummer, attract honeybees.
• Highly aromatic plant.

Type: Hardy annual.

Height: 60–90 cm.

Spread: 20–30 cm

Location: Full sun, in moist, well-drained soil.

Planting: Sow seeds in early spring, 5 mm deep in rows 20 cm apart.

• Thin established seedlings to 20 cm apart.

Harvesting: For best flavour pick leaves just as flowers open. Cut stems in dry weather as seeds ripen.

• The most popular mints are apple mint (M. rotundifolia), peppermint (M. piperita) and spearmint (M. spicata).
• White or purple flower spikes are attractive, but pinch them off to encourage leaves.
• Mints are repellent to white-cabbage butterflies.
• Prostrate ground cover pennyroyal (M. pulegium) repels ants, thus helping to protect other plants against aphids that ants tend.

Type: Perennial.

Height: 60–90 cm.

Spread: 30–45 cm.

Location: Partial shade, in rich, moist, well-drained soil.

Planting: In autumn or spring, plant 10–15 cm pieces of root 5 cm deep and 30 cm apart.

• Water well.
• Check roots' incursive tendency by sinking boards or bricks 30 cm deep around bed, or by planting in a large bottomless plastic bucket sunken into a garden bed.

Harvesting: Pick leaves as needed. For double crop, cut plant to ground in midsummer.

• Also called wild marjoram, this plant is similar to sweet marjoram but shrubbier and more spreading; leaves are darker green, with sharper fragrance and flavour.

Type: Perennial. Height: 60 cm.

Spread: 45–60 cm.

Location: Full sun, in almost any well-drained soil.

Planting: Sow seeds in spring or autumn, 5 mm deep in rows 45 cm apart.

• Thin established seedlings to 30 cm apart. Set out nursery-grown plants in mid-spring, spacing them 30–45 cm apart.

Harvesting: Pick leaves as needed. For drying, cut top 15 cm off stems just before flowers open.