Grow indoor herbs PLUS a competition (closed 30 April 2014)

Add colour to your kitchen and flavour to your food…and win some brilliant freebies along the way! Choose a few herbs to grow indoors and you'll be killing two birds with one stone. You'll instantly be able to enliven home-cooked dishes with fresh flavours as well as introducing a bit of colour and interest in your kitchen while you're at it.

Indoor herbs are easy to grow providing you give them plenty of light and water them regularly - though not too much as their roots won't appreciate 'sitting' in water. Read on for our top tips, and win with Carbon Gold.

Choose robust varieties like rosemary, bay, thyme, mint, basil, parsley and hyssop if you're new to growing and buy from a good independent garden nursery. Don't be tempted to pot up supermarket-bought plants because they've been raised in specific conditions (warm temperatures and often grown in water) which make them more delicate and less likely to thrive for longer than the few weeks shelf-life they've been raised for.

Says The Simple Things' Gardening Editor, Cinead McTernan:

'I went for hyssop, which I can add to soups and stews and when the weather warms up a bit, salads. I use thyme in lots of cooking and found a really pretty variety, 'Foxley' from my local garden centre.'

Go for herbs with fairly shallow roots rather than long, tap roots if you're growing in smaller indoor pots, again to give them the best chance of growing healthily. You can use quirky containers and recycle tins, pots, and other vessels but make sure they're big enough to give the plants chance to develop a good root system, and if they don't have a drainage hole (such as a very large teapot), add a few stones to create a layer of drainage.

Fill your container with compost - go for peat-free if you can and try something like Carbon Gold'sGroChar, which is fantastic for retaining moisture in the soil. You won't have to water so often, which is ideal if you're often out and about. Cinead bought two thyme plants, dividing and planting one in the Allison's bread tin using Grochar and leaving the other in its pot.

She says: 'I often discover that the one left in the pot has dried out and I've had issues with browning leaves due to irregular watering (or lack of watering). No such problems with GroChar. Top tip: If you're using GroChar, you might think the soil is dry. Use your finger to test just underneath the top layer of soil and check the moisture levels, watering only when this feels dry.'

Don't be afraid to divide herbs, teasing the roots apart carefully, to end up with two or three plants rather than just one.

Try sowing seeds too - micro herbs are a great idea as they'll be ready to harvest in a matter of weeks and the small leaves are packed with an intense flavour compared with the mature leaves. Again, Carbon Gold have a really good seed sowing compost which I'm going to try. I've chosen 3 varieties from Jekka's Herb Farm - Bull's Blood, Wild Rocket and Red Frills Mustard. Check back in a few weeks to see how my micro seeds get on...

COMPETITION

Add colour to your kitchen and flavour to your food…and win some brilliant freebies along the way!

Give seeds the best start in Carbon Gold’s Seed Compost and add a dash of glamour by planting them in something out of the ordinary – vintage tins, charity shop teapots or even a colourful wellington boot!

Carbon Gold would love to hear about the most quirky container you’d use to house your herbs.

Their favourite idea will win a Home Grower Starter Pack worth £51.95 and five runners up will win a 1kg tube of Soil Improver each.

You have until April 30 2014 to share your most inspired ideas! Here’s how to take part…

1. Simply ‘like’ the Carbon Gold Facebook page

2. Seek out The Simple Things competition poster nestled amongst Carbon Gold’s Facebook pictures

3. Leave a comment underneath the poster, sharing your creative container concepts.

Competition closes 30 April 2014

Escape: The country's oldest daffodil hotspot

They brighten our homes and herald spring. Grow them, visit them or simply enjoy them - you've got to love a daff While the wild daffodils of the Lake District, with their Wordsworth associations, might be the most well known, the largest concentration of daffodils in Britain is the so-called 'Golden Triangle' around the town of Newent and the villages of Dymock and Kempley, on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border.

Quite why the plant should be here in such huge quantities is impossible to say; at some stage the plant must have appeared and then had better opportunities to survive and spread than elsewhere. One reason is that since Medieval times the open woodland it prefers has been maintained through selective cutting and coppicing - both traditional management practices - creating conditions that are perfect for certain bulbs: wild daffodils, wild garlic and English bluebells. Deciduous woodland offers enough shade to suppress grass but enough light early in the year for the bulbs to shoot. Grazing, by sheep, cattle or pigs, also helped reduce bramble, the greatest enemy of bulbs.

Find the stems to suit your style

Every garden needs the morale boost of cheery daffodils in early spring - pick your favourites

THE CLASSICS - reliable, good all-rounders Carlton AGM (Large-cupped), Dutch Master AGM (Trumpet), Golden Rapture AGM (Trumpet), King Alfred (Trumpet), Saint Keverne AGM (Large-cupped)

THE PURISTS - white varieties Broomhill AGM (Large-cupped), Empress of Ireland AGM (Trumpet), Ice Follies AGM (Large-cupped), Misty Glen AGM (Small-cupped), Mount Hood AGM (Trumpet), Dickissel AGM (Jonquil)

For more, including THE OLDIES, THE SHORTIES, THE WILD THINGS, THE POT HEADS, and THE EARLY BIRDS, plus a guide to the best locations in the Golden Triangle, turn to page 82 of The Simple Things issue 21.

Buy now, or have a look through the digital sampler:

Zingy sorrel soup

Sorrel is one of those herbs that’s not as well known as it should be. It’s easy to grow, will come back year after year and tastes utterly delicious - a sort of zingy, lemon flavour that works just as well in savoury dishes as it does in sweet. If you don’t grow it yourself, (and you should) keep an eye out for wild sorrel in fields and hedgerows, anytime from now onwards. Cinead McTernan, gardening editor shows us how to use sorrel to flavour a soup. Thanks to my brother-in-law, Chef Paul Collins, over the years I’ve picked up some clever tips about using sorrel in soups. I always use the larger, more mature leaves to make soup, leaving the young, tender leaves for salads. I make a simple potato and onion base and add three handfuls of shredded leaves (having removed any tough stalks) at the last moment, blanching them quickly before buzzing up in the liquidiser. All you need is 3-4 potatoes, 2 medium onions - both peeled and diced; 1.5 pints of vegetable stock (or chicken), plenty of seasoning and, of course, sorrel leaves. Using a heavy saucepan, sweat the onion and potato in butter over a gentle heat. Add the stock to the potatoes and onions once they are soft, but not browned, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the sorrel leaves and let them wilt, season well and pour into a food processor. Buzz up until it's a nice smooth consistency and serve with fresh crusty bread.

It has to be said that sorrel does loose its fresh, green colour once it's cooked - I don't mind this as it's so tasty, but if you’re looking to try and keep as much colour in your soup as possible, Paul suggests using young leaves, simply adding them in the liquidiser just as you’re about to blend your soup. They’re so tender the heat of the soup-liquor will be enough to ‘cook’ them.

He also recommends using a handful or two of spinach along with the sorrel leaves to help boost the colour. Don't be tempted to use too much as it will overpower that deliciously fresh, lemony sorrel flavour.

Queen of herbs, Jekka McVicar, has an amazing recipe for sorrel soup in her ‘Herb Cookbook’. It was her grandmother, Ruth Lowinsky’s recipe, who was also a cookery book writer, and was included in her book ‘Food for Pleasure’ published in 1950. The recipe calls for 3 large handfuls of sorrel, a knob of butter (the size of an egg), seasoning and 300ml of chicken stock. I love the additional touch of 2 egg yolks and a tablespoon of milk that’s mixed into the broth just before serving and thinly sliced bread, toasted and broken into ‘crutons’.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Lentil and Sorrel soup is another favourite winter warmer and well worth a try.

How not to kill a houseplant

THE HOUSE PLANT IS BACK (and not a spider plant in sight!). Create an pretty indoor country garden like this one or a striking display of succulents (the minimalist houseplant perfect for the lazy gardener). Don't be put off by any previous disasters, follow the golden rules of how to keep your house plants happy and your indoor garden will thrive.

9 ways not to kill your house plants

1. Position with care. Choose plants that suit the light levels and temperature of the room in which they'll be positioned - don't expect a sun-loving plant to thrive in a cold, shady area.

2. Avoid extremes. Windowsills in direct sunlight will be too hot for most houseplants. Don't place houseplants over direct sources of heat, such as radiators. Make sure you keep delicate plants away from drying draughts.

3. Seek the light. Ensure there's sufficient light for your plants to photosynthesise effectively.

4. Pot on regularly. You should aim to repot your house plants into larger pots every two years or so to help them thrive. Use a good compost such as GroChar from Carbon Gold.

5. Be well equipped. Use the proper tools for indoor gardening. You'll need a long-spouted watering can, a mister, a long-handled fork and a pair of scissors.

6. Water wisely. Don't overwater house plants - adding drainage material to the bottom of the pot will help to keep roots aerated and ensure they don't drown.

7. Allow to rest. During the winter, move plants to a cooler position - most plants are dormant at this time, so don't need as much sunlight. Reduce the amount of water and food you provide to prevent mould and root rot. Move plants away from windows, which will be too cold in winter.

8. Be vigilant. Learn to recognise potential problems early on before a pest infestation or other physiological problems kill off your plants. Danger signs for low air humidity include flower buds falling off, leaves withering and leaves with brown tips. Signs of high humidity include mould, rot and soft growth.

9. Think long-term. Some popular house plants have a short growing period, so choose plants that will thrive for longer if you want a year-round display.

Read more about how to create your indoor garden in The Green Room, Issue 20 of The Simple Things, out now.

The House Gardener by Isabelle Palmer. Photography Helen Cathcart. Cico Books.

Rabbits are cute, as long as they're not in our gardens...

Remember the story about Beatrix Potter's cheeky Peter Rabbit and the long-suffering Mr. McGregor?

While we might think Mr. McGregor is mean and grumpy towards Peter and his family, it’s a regrettable truth that rabbits and gardens really don’t mix. Though most of us would prefer to live in harmony with our fluffy friends, the reality is they cause immeasurable damage to young trees and munch their way through newly planted borders and veg patches in one sitting.

Forewarned is forearmed as the saying goes, and rabbits are at their busiest during winter and spring, so it’s the perfect time to plan ahead to prevent them from causing mayhem in your plot this year...

It’s thought by some gardeners that family pets can be enough of a deterrent to nervous young rabbits, but while this might help in smaller gardens, a dog or a cat isn’t a practical solution at night when your pets are most likely to be found snoozing indoors (or if you have an allotment or veg patch away from your house). Alternatively, you could try a deterrent-based product that you’ll find in garden centres, DIY stores and online. They range from chemical-based sprays to gadgets that emit a sonic pulse or offensive odour. Be warned, success rates can be fairly erratic so it might not be worth spending too much money trying these out.

Rabbits are inquisitive creatures and will happily try those precious new plants and shrubs that you’ve bought. Try covering freshly planted specimens with nets or, if you’re really infested with rabbits, it might be worth going for varieties that are generally considered to be unpopular with rabbits, like peony, veronica, saliva, siberian iris, astilbe, allium, daylily. The RHS has a useful and comprehensive lists of plants and trees.

When it comes to the veg garden, rabbits can be fairly ruthless, leaving you little in the way of untouched crops to harvest. The one-acre, organic kitchen garden at The Grove in Pembrokeshire is surrounded by glorious countryside, and so vulnerable to rabbits who have to make the short journey from field to veg patch for their breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thankfully, head gardener, David Butt, is something of a horticultural genius and swears by his homemade garlic ‘potion’ to keep the rabbits at bay. The recipe is simple, 400g of garlic granules in a muslin bag tied to the inside of a 10 litre watering can filled with water. He leaves it for a day to steep and then decants the liquid. He dilutes 100ml of the garlic concentrate with 10 litres of water and spray over plants and crops.

However, if rabbits are a real problem for you, Richard Todd, Head Gardener at the National Trust’s Anglesey Abbey, suggests investing in a rabbit-proof fence to secure the whole garden to keep rabbits and all manner of other pests out. When they recently planted their new Winter Garden, the first consideration was to build such a fence around the perimeter to ensure their new, young trees, shrubs and plants would be left untouched. You can build them yourself or if you're not that handy with a mallet and drill, find a pest control company to do it for you. If you’re planting a few trees, rather than an arboretum’s worth, Richard says that a spiral tree guard is sufficient  to protect the vulnerable bark. In true National Trust style, he adds ‘wrap wire netting around the tree guard and peg it into the ground as a belt and braces measure’.

Create your own indoor herb garden

Create your own indoor herb garden this weekend and you could be picking homegrown rosemary to flavour your Sunday roast!

WHAT TO GROW There's nothing more rewarding than enhancing your cooking using homegrown freshly picked herbs. Plant this trio and you're covered for a host of dishes.

THYME can be grown successfully indoors – it simply needs a bright windowsill and some basic care and attention to thrive.

ROSEMARY The heady scent emanating from rosemary is delicious, and this highly fragrant herb is very easy to grow. Being a Mediterranean herb, it will appreciate a warm sunny spot.

LAVENDER The lavender plant makes a lovely partner for both the thyme and the rosemary. Lavender is hard to resist, boasting beautiful flowers and an arresting scent. It adds a delicate flavour to cooking that’s especially wonderful in light desserts.

HOW TO PLANT YOUR CONTAINER A wooden crate found in a junk shop makes a perfect herb garden planter.

You will need

• An old wooden crate
• Drainage material eg. gravel or small pebbles
• Potting compost. We recommend environmentally friendly, peat-free enriched BioChar compost eg. GroChar from Carbon Gold.
• Decorative mulch eg. fine gravel or shells

1. Cover the bottom of the crate with a layer of drainage material, such as gravel or pebbles, aiming to fill about a quarter of the container’s volume. This will allow the roots to breathe and prevent them from drowning.

2. Fill the container with potting mix to bring the plant up so that the top of the root-ball is just beneath the rim of the container. Make sure it is not lopsided.

3. Carefully feed more potting mix in between the plants and container, and firm it down. Avoid compacting the potting mix too much, though, as this will hinder drainage.

4. Add a layer of decorative mulch, such as fine gravel or shells, to finish off the planting. Not only does this make the container look more attractive, but it can also help to reduce the rate of water evaporation.

Find more inspiring indoor gardening ideas in issue 20 of The Simple Things.

Cabbage never tasted this good

The star of our Seed to Stove series, Lia Leendertz, is turning her winter crop of cabbages and kale into tangy winter treats in this month's The Simple Things (Issue 19).  Cavolo nero crispy seaweed anyone? If you're inspired to grow your own crop, Lia has persuaded the good people at Otter Farm in Devon to do a special offer on her favourite varieties of cabbage. So click here to buy seeds of Cavalo Nero (25% off) and Red Russian at £1.50 per packet instead of £2. Type in the code SimpleThingsKale.

Otter Farm is a treasure trove of unusual and forgotten foods. Smallholder Mark Diacono grows them on his plot and has written an award-winning book A Taste of the Unexpected. He sells plants and seeds through his online shop.