Adding flavour to your cooking; adding interest to your gardening, growing your own fresh herbs is a delight - and they're not that hard to cultivate.

Most herbs can be grown outside in pots or windowboxes. They look good, smell good and do you good and they can transform a meal into a feast. Anyone, with just the smallest space, can grow them.

Many herb seeds are better sown direct into the garden or a deep container, as herbs hate being transplanted. It causes them to bolt and run to flower, missing out the leaf stage; coriander, dill and salad rocket are classic examples of this.

And don't try to nurture a supermarket buy (as I have done) - you'll be lucky if it lasts a week.

The success of a herb garden is all in the planning. Think about the shape and aspect of the site: is it north or south facing, do you have light and sandy soil that dries out in summer or heavy clay, like much of Bedfordshire, that holds too much water in winter? Drought-loving Mediterranean herbs, such as sage, rosemary and thyme, prefer a dry, sunny situation and will grow happily in a windowbox. Other herbs, such as angelica, chervil and parsley, thrive best in rich, moist soil and partial shade.

Consider the size, structure and flowering potential of each plant - tall shrub herbs such as bay and myrtle can be positioned near a wall or towards the back of a border, in a bed or pot (potted herbs should be in a good loam-based compost). They will tolerate some shade but, as Paul Daniels says, not a lot. The vibrant red of bergamot, which enjoys a light soil, and the bright blue of borage, which can go in any soil, can be used as accents throughout the garden, and little treasures, such as the Cretan oregano with its hairy leaves and stunning flowers, should be at the front of the garden in a very light soil, or as a feature in a pot (with a mix of compost and horticultural grit). Most herbs can be grown in containers or windowboxes, but not all: those with a deep taproot, such as horseradish, or those which grow particularly tall, such as chicory, are better in the garden with rich, moist soil.

Water your herbs regularly in the evening. Exceptions to this rule are plants such as lemon grass and curry leaf that have been imported from warmer climes. They hate our fluctuating temperatures - warm in the day but cold at night. Water them in the morning so they go to bed dry. Seeds should be sown in spring or early summer on the whole, though some, such as mustard, sorrel and rocket, make for a lovely autumn crop.

All herbs can be grown outside, but you'll need to bring them in for winter. They don't like the frost.