Now is the time to plant Lovage

Do you have lovage in your garden? If not, now is the time to sow seeds. In a few weeks you'll be able to buy lovage plants ready to go straight into the garden.

Here's an article I've written about Lovage- how to grow and use the Lovage herb.

If you visit it please leave a message.

Do you love lovage? It tastes rather like celery, it's easy to grow, you can use it all summer in salads and recipes, and it looks pretty too.

Here's a picture of lovage in my herb garden.

Lovage at White Moss House, Grasmere

The sorrel is just appearing, but no sign yet of lovage.

At this time of year I'm checking the herb garden to see if any fresh herbs are on their way.

The tiniest shoots of sorrel are just peeping through, but there is no sign yet of  the lovage . If you click on the links, you'll find lots of reasons to grow these two great herbs.

Lovage in my White Moss Grasmere garden

These two herbs are easy to grow, and as they are not often found in shops, it makes sense to grow your own. Now is the time to sow! You can buy seeds from Amazon.

For more information about sorrel and lovage see my page "Two unusual herbs" 

The herb garden is looking good already, and the sweet cicely is ready for the rhubarb.

With a warm winter and spring, our herb garden is already offering a good choice of fresh herbs. Whenever we cook, we just pop out of the back door and pick whatever seems to fit the meal.

Now that the nights are light it's even easier. No need for blind picking when there isn't a torch to hand. Right now I've got lovage,  sweet cicely,  sorrel, mint, peppermint, rosemary, thyme, sage, fennel and marjoram all at hand. Don't think that because you live in the North of England, in a cool , damp climate, you can't grow herbs. You can. We do!

The thyme and rosemary is actually in a pot, which I've kept under the eaves out of the worst of this winter's rain. In past years I've lost the thyme and rosemary, as they hate having their roots permanently wet. This year they're as happy as the proverbial Larry.

Sweet Cicely in White Moss garden.

Hers a picture of sweet cicely in our White Moss herb garden. It will be a week or so before it's as high as this, but the great thing is that there is enough leaf now to add to the wonderful fresh new rhubarb that's in the shops. The sweet cicely cuts the sharpness of the rhubarb, so you don't need so much sugar. Grow sweet cicely and keep the calories down. Add it to fruit dishes and halve the sugar. That's Herb Magic.
Speaking of Herb Magic, here's a book for herb fans that's on my wish list.

Do you grow lovage?

We love lovage ( corny but true)

During our 30 + years as a top restaurant in the Good Food Guide, lovage featured in many of our dishes. Now with the latest fashion for using a wide range of herbs and finding things in hedgerows, lovage is getting more common in the kitchens of top chefs such as Simon Rogan.

Lovage is very easy to grow. Read all about how to grow and use lovage here.

Here in the Lakes our lovage is already 6 inches high in our Grasmere garden and growing every day. Soon we'll be using the leaves in salads, stews, soups, garnishes. Here's a picture if you're not sure what lovage is. It looks a bit like celery and tastes a little like celery.

You can buy lovage plants ready to go from Amazon UK here. If you prefer to buy the seeds, did you know that Amazon also stock a great range of seeds with free delivery if you order several items? Click on the photo to buy Suttons Lovage seeds from Amazon UK.

Things are starting to grow at last- tips of lovage, little sorrel leaves

The ice cold weather has finally relented, and we're up in the dizzy heights of 11C . Not great, but better. It's also raining, which is something I'm not normally a big fan of, but we need the rain now to help the buds open.

Here is a picture I took in March last year of the lovage just coming up. You can click through this link to find out how to grow and use lovage. This year the lovage still isn't as big as this. We must be  3 weeks or 4 weeks behind last year. The sorrel is still tiny too.

Lovage at White Moss House, Grasmere , 20 March 2012

The deer have been busy whilst we've been away.

We've been away for three weeks and the deer have got bolder. Nothing much keeps them out at this time of year when nothing much is growing, but our absence and lack of human scent does seem to encourage them. Even though it is just the beginning of March, we had hoped to see the early herbs peeping out. The Lake District has had a lovely sunny two weeks, and though cold at night, the days have been glorious. Herbs such as Lovage should be ready to start growing very soon, but any shoots that pop up are immediately eaten. Ho hum- the problems of wildlife in the garden never go away. This is what that lovage will look like in a few weeks time- hopefully. Click here for lots more photos and information about lovage. For more information about herbs there are lots of articles and links about how to grow herbs right here. Get planning your herb garden now for a tasty 2013.

Looking at lovage

I've just spent a happy couple of hours hoeing the herb garden and then raking in fish, blood and bone to give the herbs a good start.
The lovage is already up. If you don't know what lovage is, You can read all about how to grow and use lovage here.
Here is the lovage just opening up. I've photographed it by the side of the hand fork so that you can see it's only a few inches high.

Baby lovage white moss house march 2012

I'll take more photos as it grows. It's a great herb- not that well known, but really useful and easy to grow.

The chives are coming along well, and the bay has had a great winter and is looking good. We're loving this sunny dry weather in the Lake District. No worries about a drought here!

We're opening our B & B rooms next weekend at White Moss House. Why not come and stay?

Now's the time to take a look at the herb garden

It's hard to imagine, looking at the bare patches of soil, that pretty soon I'll have an abundance of fresh herbs in the herb garden.
If you haven't already seen all the stuff I've written about my herb garden you can pop over to this page to get started.

I think that two of my favourite herbs are sorrel and lovage. Both are easy to grow, and both are easy to use to give interesting flavours to you cooking and salads.

Here's lovage growing in the White Moss herb garden.

Time to plan your herb garden for 2012 now!