Herb Trios Iced Tea

With the summer entertaining season fast approaching, it is time to prepare the garden! What better way to start than with some delicious herbs that are ready and raring to grow. They will fill you meals with fragrance and flavour in no time. Offering you plenty of bragging rights with friends and family.

The herbs come pre potted in a 10cm pot, you can pot them on individually, or keep them together and pot them on to a 30-40cm decorative container. You could of course put them in the garden, there are no hard and fast rules!

The Iced Tea Herb Trio includes:

Moroccan Mint or spearmint, Mentha spicata (Syn. M. viridis), is a evergreen that grows 40-60cm x 40-60cm. The leaves have a lovely fresh flavour and fragrance that isn’t as intense as most. Mottled in mocktails and cocktails it is delightful on a sunny afternoon in the garden.

Lemon Verbena, Aloysia citriodora, can be eaten fresh or dried. It grows 80-200cm x 40-140cm. It can grow into a small bush, but will be more contained in a pot – it responds well to pruning so you can keep it to size as required. Useful in herbal teas both iced or warm. You could also add some leaves to a fruits salad or chicken dishes and dressings. Dried leaves can be used indoors in your draws too.

Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis grows 30-90cm x 30-90cm, though will be smaller in a pot. The leaves have a nice citrus flavour that is delicious in teas, deserts, punches, salads, fish or chicken dishes. Easy care and quick to grow and establish.

While they will be kept small initially with pinching/cutting for dishes, some may eventually outgrow their decorative container at which point you can pot them on individually, plant them out or increase the size of the pot.