Purple Ruffles is probably the prettiest of basils, if not of all herbs. While it deserves a place in your kitchen garden, it also makes an excellent contrasting plant in a border. Tempting though it is to admire your plant, one taste will have you tearing the leaves of by the armful.

Sweet Genovese is often associated with Italian cuisine. Basil is native to the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. This delicate herb has with an intense, spicy-sweet, aroma and a slight anise-like undertone. It is THE Basil for pesto and a wonderful companion plant.

Borage is one of the most reliable sources of blue flowers, often flowering lavishly for weeks after sowing. The beautiful blue star-shaped flowers are edible and very important for bees, providing pollen and nectar in prodigious amounts.

This white flowered form of borage is not often written about. My first introduction was at the celebrated 'white' garden at Sissinghurst in England. The flowers are edible, garden visitors can be converted to herbal advocates simply by offering a taste of its white flower.

‘Fine-leaved’ are the chives most used for culinary purposes, they have a delicious, mild onion flavour. The narrow linear leaves are snipped and used primarily fresh, stirred into uncooked foods or added to cooked foods during the last few minutes of cooking. The attractive flowers, mauve in rounded heads, are edible and make a very pretty garnish.

These easy to grow chives are one of the famous fines herbes (fine herbs) of French cuisine. They are perennial bulbs that spread to form neat tufted clumps, ideal for edging beds and paths. They are particularly attractive when in flower and are a favourite of bees and other pollinating insects.

Four of the classic varieties of English Lavender, each popular in its own right. Lavendula angustifolia is considered to be "True" lavender and thought to be the best for medicinal and aromatherapy purposes. Each varies in height, colour and fragrance. Purchase all four to receive a discount of 20%

A relatively new vegetable in the English-speaking world but well-known in Asian cuisine, the flavour of garlic chives is more like garlic than chives, though much milder. Both leaves and the stalks of the flowers are used a stir fry ingredient. The flowers may also be used as a spice.

Proponents of alfalfa describe it as a wonder crop. As a green manure, alfalfa can be grown for a few months or a year. The plants are able to fix large quantities of nitrogen from the air, its long roots break up soil pans, prevent erosion and improve soil and water quality.