Owen Pidgeon's tips on growing rosemary and herbs in Canberra

As we each took a sprig of the aromatic rosemary at Anzac Day my thoughts turned to this and other healing herbs used over the centuries.

Rosemary grew wild on the island of Lemnos where many of our first Anzac soldiers were nursed after battle on the peninsula. It is a herb that is cultivated throughout the temperate regions of the Mediterranean. In earlier centuries it was often burnt in the chambers of the sick to freshen and purify the air. And for the romantics among us, you could follow the Elizabethan tradition of tying bunches of rosemary with golden coloured ribbons to give to guests at your wedding, as a deep symbol of love and faithfulness.

Rosemary is often combined with three or four other herbs as a cooking bouquet. Bouquet garni is a bundle of herbs used to flavour dishes. It is added to soups, stocks and stews to give flavour, then removed before serving. Take some sprigs of rosemary, parsley and thyme, add a bay leaf and perhaps some celery leaves and tie up with string. You can place the bouquet inside a muslin bag so that when you remove the bundle, no stray leaves remain.

This is one of those hardy herbs that survive and keep growing even through the colder months of a highlands winter. It is a wonderful border plant for your herb garden. Now is a suitable time to take cuttings from an existing bush to propagate new plants. When your plants have become well established, trim the bushes each spring after the frosts have passed, to keep them bushy and prevent them growing too tall.

Rosemary grows best in a well-drained, full sun location. If you have a north-facing wall to reflect the warmth of the winter sun, then planting rosemary nearby is ideal. It can be grown as a hedge. If you do wish to create a hedge, allow 45-50cm between each plant. When it flowers it looks pretty and there are sub species that will give you white, pink or blue flowers. The tender rosemary leaves can be harvested throughout the year and used in the kitchen to add real flavour to lamb, fish and vegetable dishes. It is also one essential ingredient to use when preparing stuffings.

Parsley grows well in Canberra and requires minimal care. Treat parsley as an annual, as any two-year-old leaves are quite coarse and you would much prefer to pick tender young leaves from new season plants. Parsley is a fine garnish for egg dishes.

Sow parsley seeds or plant out seedlings in early spring. If you allow these plants to go to seed, the plant will scatter seeds across the garden bed and you will have plenty of young new plants springing up each year.

The little herb thyme is a much used herb. Thyme has real fragrance so use it in casseroles, soups and other hearty dishes over the winter months. It is also a wonderful addition to potato dishes, but use it sparingly.

Thyme is also one of those hardy plants that will grow well with good drainage, so long as the soil is not too heavy and not too rich. Lighten up clay soil by mixing in a useful amount of coarse river sand. Place thyme plants in a sunny position and protect from the cold winter winds.

The best way to grow new plants is to take softwood cuttings from new sucker growth in early spring. The bay tree is another hardy evergreen tree native to southern Europe and its leaves can be used in many dishes. It is a good container plant which will provide a bonus of lovely dark, shiny leaves staying very much alive throughout the winter months.

In ideal conditions some bay tree species can grow to 3-4 metres but as they are easy to prune, you can shape them and keep their height down to that of a small bush if you wish to. They like an open and sunny position. Just add one or two bay leaves to soups, stews, casseroles and marinades. You can grow these little bushy trees in the garden or simply place them in large in terracotta pots to keep them on the verandah or patio close to the kitchen.

Tender lamb and vegetable casserole (navarin a la printaniere)

1 kg lean lamb shoulder
30g butter
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
15 baby carrots
2 tbps plain flour
500 ml lamb stock
1 tbps tomato puree
1 bouquet garni
10 shallots
200g baby turnips
150g chat potatoes
150g stringless beans or fresh peas
salt and freshly ground pepper

Trim off any fat from the lamb shoulder and cut into large diced pieces. Heat the butter in a large, heavy based casserole pot and brown the meat, in batches and set aside. Add butter to the pan, as required and cook the onion and carrots on moderate heat for three minutes. Add in the garlic and cook for a further minute. Return the meat to the pot, and stir in the flour to coat the meat and vegetables. Then stir in the stock and bring to the boil. Add in the bouquet garni and the tomato puree. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for at least an hour.

Prepare the baby carrots, turnips, shallots, potatoes and beans/peas and add all these vegetables to the casserole and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, remove the bouquet garni and stir in some finely chopped parsley just before serving.

This week in the garden

▪ Harvest any remaining summer vegetables in the garden before the heavy frosts arrive.

▪ Keep some vine attached to your pumpkins and store in a dry sheltered location, to help them harden up.

▪ Plant out garlic, broad beans and snow peas. Remember to weed around the newly emerging plants before the other plants overwhelm them.

▪ Scatter mulch around any brassicas and other winter vegetables that you have growing.

▪ Plant more onion seeds into propagation trays if you have time and space. Grow on in the trays until they are 15-20cm high. It will be a joy to have a good harvest in the coming summertime.

▪ Early May is a good time to begin pruning stonefruit trees, particularly nectarine and peach trees, as the leaves are now dropping. Prune hard to keep the height of the trees down and thin out the new growth branches.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.