Most of the popular herbs used in cooking are extremely easy to grow even if you don’t have a garden.

Larger types such as bay, rosemary and sage are well suited to growing in containers in the backyard or on the patio. Many of the smaller annual herbs, including basil and coriander, can be grown on a sunny windowsill.

Lots of annual herbs are so easy to multiply, making a ready supply from spring to autumn. Fresh herbs at your fingertips are not only very convenient but the cost of a few seeds, or time spent taking cuttings, is infinitely better than spending several pounds a week buying them from a supermarket.

Coriander and basil are, in fact, tender perennials which are best treated as annuals and sown each year. To get continuity of supply, sow several batches from now until July.

Coriander has a strong tendency to run to seed quickly in hot, dry weather and so must be kept well-watered. Parsley is another perennial which often goes to seed and is best sown successively throughout spring and summer. I like to grow both the curly-leaved and flat-leaved Italian kinds.

Basil likes warm, sunny weather and for this reason I keep mine indoors rather than risk it outdoors in the Cumbrian summer. You can get a head start with a little cheating.

Simply buy a healthy pot from the supermarket, water well and gently tease the roots apart. Pot on singly into 7cm pots or put groups of two or three in larger containers.

Sink the stems up to the first true leaves, water well and shade for a few days to aid establishment. After about 10 days, pinch out the shoot tips and you will soon have healthy, aromatic pots of basil.

You still have time to sow a few batches of dill outdoors. The lovely feathery blue-green leaves and flat sprays of flowers, which act like magnets to bees, look like fennel and are extremely attractive.

There are many varieties of mint including apple, pineapple, ginger and the most popular of all, spearmint. This perennial can be grown from seed but faster results occur from cuttings.

Simply save a few stems from a bunch of supermarket mint, pop them in a glass of water, sit back and watch the roots grow then pot them up individually into 9cm pots.

If you grew your sage this spring in a propagator or on a sunny windowsill, you should now be able to take a few cuttings from each plant.

Chives are one of the easiest herbs to multiply either from seed, or if a fellow gardener has some, then they will most likely lift, divide and give you a clump.