Thai Dishes

Never underestimate the power of fresh herbs

Not all herbs come out of a bottle or cellophane bag!

Sure, you might see a bigger range of herbs already dried, chopped and packaged at the supermarket, but buying and using them means you are missing some of the flavour and most of the fun.

It is only when you start growing your own herbs that you realise what you’ve been missing. The whole herb experience includes choosing the plants, nurturing, picking, preparing and eating. Nothing can beat the flavour, texture and visual excitement of home grown Thai herbs freshly picked and placed on the kitchen bench. Even whilst waiting to be crushed and chopped, your fresh herbs will be tantalising your senses with their aromas. This is when you are ready to transform your fresh ingredients into an exciting Thai meal.

Unlock the flavours and your green thumb

When you are ready to change your lifestyle and reward yourself with fresh Thai herbs, you’re ready to start a Thai garden. At Hawkins Home & Garden Centres, they’re ready to show you how.

A complete Thai garden would contain at least fifteen different herbs currently available from our Renaissance range. You can choose your favourites or you can collect them all, remembering that availability may be seasonal. Thai herbs can be grown in containers or in the garden but most need a full-sun to part-shade situation.

Healthy soil means healthy plants

At Hawkins, they work on the understanding that a healthy soil means healthy plants. In the case of a Thai garden, nothing could be closer to the truth. Obviously for cooking, your Thai herbs need to be abundant as well as healthy and strong. But even more importantly, this same strength and health becomes a defence against damage from pests and diseases, hopefully eliminating the need to use chemical sprays, making your Thai garden experience a very healthy one.

If your soil lacks the ability to hold moisture and earthworms, or is just too hard to dig, it is not ‘healthy’ and you definitely need to add lots of organic material. The addition of Searles Real Compost would be an ideal way to rectify the shortcomings but manures, composted leaves, blood & bone, and straw mulches all work to help make a healthy soil. In keeping with this healthy organic theme, we also recommend you use natural fertilisers, such as Charlie Carp or Organic Plus as well as the manures. Some soils need all the help they can get and you may need to seek advice from one of the Horticultural Advisors at Hawkins about other available soil conditioning treatments to achieve the desired result.

Planting in pots and containers is another way to ensure your Thai herbs enjoy the healthy soil they deserve. Indeed, a Thai garden developed in decorative pots would be an outstanding and useful feature in an outdoor living area. Although Thai herbs will thrive in pots normally used for outdoor shrubs, consider using the larger, more shallow bowls for Turmeric, Ginger and Galangal to allow space for their rhizomes (bulbous roots) to develop. Ensure your pots have drainage holes, fill them with a quality potting mix, add your plants, fertilise with Charlie Carp, add straw mulch around the surface and you are on your way to a healthy Thai garden.

Some like it wet

Some Thai herbs need constantly moist conditions to thrive. Ideally, these should be grouped together in a position that either stays moist due to natural run-off water in your garden, or where they can be watered regularly. Galangal, Ginger, Turmeric, Laksa Leaf and Thai Mint will all grow successfully in a shady to partly sunny situation with constant moisture. Laksa Leaf and Thai Mint grow to about 50cm tall and are enjoyed for their tasty leaves where as the Galangal, Ginger and Turmeric will grow to approximately 1 metre tall and produce underground rhizomes for harvesting. All of these enjoy regular fertiliser. If you are growing these moisture lovers in pots, mix in some Searles Real Compost with the potting mix to help keep the soil moist.

Others are happy with what they get

No Thai garden would be complete without Basil. The three main Basil varieties grown are Thai, Holy and Lemon. Each have individual flavours but all are easy to grow in a sunny to partially sunny situation with generous fertilising and reasonable moisture. Of course, another Thai essential is the versatile Coriander. Both leaves and seeds are valued for their unique flavour. Although Coriander plants usually grow for only one season, a perennial variety is available allowing you a longer harvesting period. This perennial variety also grows well in hot, humid weather. Another perennial ‘must have’ is Lemon Grass. Growing to nearly 1 metre tall on sturdy stalks, this casual grass with a lovely weeping habit makes quite an impact in your kitchen as well as in the garden.

It’s not a yolk!

In Thai gardens, eggs grow on plants – the Thai Eggplant to be precise! The Thai Eggplant thrives in a vegetable garden situation needing both generous fertilising and moisture. Growing to about 1m tall and 60cm wide, it should produce many glossy mauve to purple eggs.

The heat is on . . .

Fortunately, you can adjust the ‘temperature’ of your meal with a choice of Hot Thai Chilli and Mild Thai Chilli. Both types enjoy generous fertilising and reasonable moisture and thrive in vegetable gardens. Large quantities of fruit are usually produced from the plants, which last about two years. The Mild Thai Chilli is the larger of the two, growing to about 60cm high with the fruit being about 15cm long.

And last, but not least

The biggest plant in your Thai garden will be the Kaffir limes. This is a citrus with a difference in that it is grown for its leaves, not its fruit. Growing to at least 2m tall and 1m wide and producing an abundance of deep green, glossy foliage, it will make quite a statement in your garden. Kaffir Limes prefer all day sun and a well drained soil. Regular fertiliser is essential and the tree would certainly benefit from a well-mulched soil.