Herbs are magical, aren't they. I can actually understand why wise old plant women were persecuted as witches. It must have seemed like spell craft the way a healing plant potion sorted out illness - and remember back then illness was seen to be a demon invading you!

While we are lucky today to not be burned at the stake, plant and natural healers nevertheless are often nay-said by the allopathic and science communities who believe they're all quacks. Interesting then to know that 80% of the world population still rely on natural medicines, that the word drug as it is used in modern medicine comes from the word droog - literately DRY, as in "dried herbs" or "dried plants", and interesting that so many of our modern day pharmacy medicines has their roots in plants...

Of course, experience speaks the loudest to me, and I do, and have done for many years before - without hesitation - visit my garden for any remedy my household may need. And if I don't find the answer to what ails them physically, mentally or emotionally, I visit my pantry because there are treasures I concocted from previous seasons' harvests - fermented medicines for immunity, herbal teas for colds and fevers, essential oils to calm fretful sleeping, balms and salves for aches or bruises, and preserved foods full of homegrown goodness.

It is for this reason I think of herbs as magical plants. Not only are they beautiful in the garden - and they sure can hold a candle to any aesthetic plant in even the most fussy show garden - but they bring something more - to me they spark absolute joy when you are able to harvest them and bring them INTO your home, make them a part of you and your family through enjoying them as a food or using them as a healing agent, a cosmetic or even just a happy craft.

It is all about the soil. Not the plants. Many years of gardening, lots of mistakes, and great deals of money spent have taught me that the best start (and middle and end) to any garden is the soil. Create a LIVING SOIL and you are more than halfway to the finish line of great gardening success.

The soil should teem with worms, crawly insects and even sleeping grubs when you dig your spade in. And when you look at a bit of your dirt under a microscope, you should be astounded by the number of fungi and microbiotics that make their home in the soil.

Dead soil is dead. It takes too much time, money and effort to have enough (unnatural) input to grow anything in there, and then it probably, even if the plant may look good, has not real nutrient values to speak of. It takes time, but soil can be revived, for the most part.

Most of us are lucky enough to not have dead-beyond-help gardens or soils. How can you improve on that?

1. Compost - what a beautiful closed-loop system composting is! You eat your produce, take the leftovers and chuck 'em into the compost bin, which creates gorgeous hummus for your food plants to grow in, from which you harvest new produce to eat. And you keep things from the landfills too, which is always a good idea.
2. If you can't compost because you don't have the space, try a worm farming - many commercial palces sell quaint little kits, or you can make your own.
3. You heard Verity speak about kombucha and kefir and how these are good for the gut microbes - let me introduce you to Bokashi, which is a fermenting method that turns food scraps into a valuable source of effective microorganisms which is great for the soil and the soil fauna.

I'm often asked by new gardeners what to plant. The answer is so simple - plant what YOU eat, what you enjoy. You will have more passion to put time and effort into a plant that you are going to find pleasure in eating or using. There is honestly something purely ecstatic almost in picking stuff you grew and eating it.

Do be a bit daring though too! I always challenge everyone to add one new thing that they've never grown or eaten in a season to their plant list. You never know, you may just find your next favourite food! At the very least you are expanding your plant and gardening knowledge, and perhaps even your cross-cultural understanding too!

I know from experience right, the thrill of having your first success in the garden, and suddenly you want to plant up every square inch of soil, convert your whole deck to a potted garden, and hang a thousand baskets from your veranda. Good ambition! But truthfully, I'm going to say "Woah! Take it easy there!". Grow slowly and surely, as your confidence levels increase, your garden space and complexity can increase. But don't overdo it and find that all the pleasure has been sucked out of endless gardening chores... It should be fun. Keep it simple so it stays your happy place.

Flowing from starting small and keeping it simple, is being space savvy. Even if you live in a one-bedroom apartment, I'm sure you can find a spot to put a herb plant, or a potted vegetable, or a fruit tree even! Vertical space is often overlooked, but you can grow quite a bit if you're willing to go upwards. Pots are fantastic for most herbs and even vegetables do well in potted culture. Be creative. Grow something. Somewhere.

When we first moved from South Africa, my first rental only had a little balcony - and on this balcony, with almost no budget to spare at all on gardens, I managed to grow around 20 herbs in cut-up milk bottles.

Be wary too of the little plant starts you buy at garden centers - sometimes the tiny plant you buy can grow into a huge monstrosity - take Angelica for example - often sold as a seedling in 10cm pots to quickly grow to over 2m tall and wide!

Looking at nature, you don't often, if at all, see mono-cultured crops growing in neat rows - rather there's a whole little ecosystem of plants growing together, creating a beautiful mass of productivity and LIFE! One way to achieve a do-able imitation of that in the home garden is to companion plant - don't only grow vegetables, but grow herbs around them, and flowers in between them. Grow annuals, shrubs, vines, creepers and trees. This way you can have more than one plant producing in a very small bit of space, you provide safe haven for critters that deal to pests and feed your soil, and can even plant herbs specifically to deter problem insects, bring pollinators such as bees and butterflies, release nutrients into the soil, and be pleasing to the eye.