A doorstep larder, however small the plot

Cottage gardens and mews courtyards are rarely generous with space. A narrow strip beside a path, a sunny sill, the few feet of gravel by the back door — that is often the whole of it. Fortunately, that is all the culinary herbs you actually use need. Parsley, thyme and chives will crop for months from a pot no bigger than a bucket, and they look entirely at home among lavender, roses and climbing plants. The aim is not self-sufficiency. It is the small daily pleasure of stepping out with a pair of scissors while the pan heats, and coming back with something that tastes of the garden.

Three reliable starters

If you have room for only three pots, make them these. All are hardy, forgiving and generous with cuttings, and all are sold cheaply as young plants in spring — far quicker than raising them from seed.

• Flat-leaved parsley — stronger in flavour than curly types, and the one cooks reach for. 'Giant of Italy' is worth seeking out. It is a biennial, so sow or buy fresh each spring rather than nursing an old plant through its second, seed-producing year.
• Thyme — common and French thyme are the kitchen standards, with lemon thyme a lovely extra for fish. It is a Mediterranean plant at heart: it wants sun, sharp drainage and a little grit in the compost, and it sulks in heavy, wet soil.
• Chives — the easiest of the lot, and the first to push up green shoots in late winter. A single clump will keep going for years if you divide it every second or third spring.

Pots, troughs and narrow borders

Terracotta suits cottage gardens and suits herbs, because its porous walls let surplus water evaporate — useful for thyme in a wet British winter. Give parsley a pot around 25–30cm across, thyme 20cm or so, and chives a long trough if you have one, since they spread sideways rather than down.

Site the pots within a few paces of the kitchen door, in full sun if you can manage it. Four to six hours of direct light is the difference between a sturdy thyme and a pale, leggy one. In a mews courtyard, brick and render walls store heat and bounce light back, which extends the season nicely — but it also dries pots out fast, so check them daily in July and August. Raise every pot on feet or broken tiles so the drainage hole never sits in a puddle, and in exposed northern gardens move tender pots against a sheltered wall for winter.

Compost, grit and feeding without fuss

Use a peat-free multipurpose compost mixed with roughly one part horticultural grit to four parts compost for thyme and rosemary, and something slightly richer — a loam-based compost is ideal — for parsley and chives, which like a bit of moisture and feed.

• Watering: little and often in summer, and never let parsley dry out completely, or it will run to flower and turn bitter.
• Feeding: a weak liquid feed every fortnight through the growing season keeps parsley and chives leafy. Thyme needs almost nothing; too much richness makes it soft and flavourless.
• Top-dressing: scrape off the top 2cm of compost each spring and replace it with fresh, rather than repotting everything.

Cutting so the supply keeps coming

Harvesting is where most people go wrong, usually by being too timid. Herbs respond to regular picking; neglected plants go woody and stop producing.

• Parsley: cut the outer stems right down at the base, a few at a time, always leaving the central crown of young leaves to grow on.
• Chives: snip individual leaves about 2cm above the soil, working round the clump. Pinch out the pink flower buds unless you want the flowers for salads — leaving them on slows leaf production.
• Thyme: take short sprigs from the top and tips, and never cut back into the old, leafless wood, which rarely reshoots.

Wash and dry only what you are about to use. Fresh herbs lose their oils quickly once chopped, so add parsley and chives at the very end of cooking, and thyme earlier, where it can infuse.

Getting more from the same square foot

Once the first three are thriving, a few companions earn their place without crowding. Rosemary and winter savoury are shrubby enough to stand as small evergreens in pots, giving structure as well as flavour. Sage and marjoram cope with a narrow, sunny border. Mint is worth having, but only in its own pot, sunk to the rim, or it will march through everything else.

A bay tree in a pot by the door gives year-round pickings and can be clipped into a neat cone. In a sheltered mews courtyard, you can often keep a pot of flat-leaved parsley going well into November under a cloche or against a warm wall, and chives will sometimes give a second, smaller cut in early autumn if you water them after the summer lull. Sow a few seeds in late summer for a fresh supply the following spring, and the cycle keeps turning with very little effort — a handful of pots, a pair of scissors, and dinner already improved.