Watch the video to see our Head of Horticulture, Ben Raskin, explain how you can grow herbs from cuttings at home.
Growing herbs from cuttings
In the video, Ben demonstrates this method by taking cuttings of rosemary. It’s an easy starter plant for beginners and it can do well inside in a pot or in the garden.
To get started, all you need is… a fully-grown herb plant, a pair of scissors, a glass of water, and a pot with compost in.
Take your fully-grown plant and select a green stem. To take a cutting, simply snip just below a leaf node (where the leaves come out of the stem). A piece 3 or 4 inches long should do.
Remove the bottom leaves and put your cutting into a glass of water.
Leave it on a sunny windowsill. Change the water every few days to encourage growth. It may take a few weeks, but you should start to see some roots forming on the bottom of the cutting.
Once you have some roots, it’s ready to plant. Fill your pot loosely with compost, poke your finger into it to make a hole then, holding the cutting gently at the top, pop the cutting in and carefully firm the compost down.
Water the cutting in – and watch it grow!
If you’ve planted some rosemary, it’s a hardy herb - so you can expect to enjoy a supply of fresh herbs through the winter. Bees love it too when it’s flowers in spring!
If you want to try some different herbs, this method will also work for some other woody herbs like basil or sage.
We hope this helps you make small, positive changes that boost your wellbeing and help you feel closer to our natural world.
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Pukka Herbs and the Soil Association Charity are campaigning together to inspire more of us to take small positive steps to support nature every day. We share a common belief that human health and wellbeing is dependent on the health of our soil and planet, and both want a world where our food, farming and land use restores nature, promotes health and creates a safe climate.
