Growing herbs in pots on a windy patio

There's a particular kind of optimism that comes with a windy patio. You stand there in March, squinting into a breeze that has clearly come straight off the North Sea, and think: this year, I'll grow rosemary. And you can. It just takes a bit of cunning, a few heavy pots, and a willingness to accept that your mint will never look as tidy as the pictures in the garden centre.

Wind is the enemy of container herbs, but it's a manageable enemy. It dries compost in hours, snaps tender stems, and makes life miserable for anything Mediterranean that likes its feet dry and its leaves unruffled. Get the basics right, though, and you'll be snipping thyme into a Sunday roast well into autumn.

Pick varieties that treat a gale as a bit of fun

Not all herbs are created equal when it comes to exposure. The ones that hail from rocky hillsides and coastal cliffs are your allies here. Rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage all evolved in places where wind is a daily fact of life, and their small, leathery, often grey-green leaves are built to cope.

• Rosemary — go for a compact cultivar rather than a sprawling one. Upright forms resist toppling and don't flop onto the patio after a gust.
• Thyme — common thyme and lemon thyme are both tough as old boots. Creeping thymes look lovely in a trough but do get battered, so plant them lower down where the pot rim gives some shelter.
• Oregano — thrives on neglect. The flavour actually intensifies when the plant is stressed, so a windy corner suits it.
• Sage — a sturdy shrubby herb with slightly fuzzy leaves. Purple sage is marginally less weatherproof than the plain green.
• Mint — the exception. Mint is soft, leafy and hates drying out, but it's also almost impossible to kill. Keep it in its own pot, always, or it will colonise everything else.

What about basil, parsley, coriander and chives? Grow them, by all means, but treat them as fair-weather friends. Basil in particular sulks below about 12°C and shreds in a stiff breeze. If you want it, put it in the most sheltered spot you have and bring it in when the nights turn cold.

Weight beats wobble every time

A lightweight plastic pot full of dry compost is basically a sail. The first job is to make your containers heavy enough to stay put. Terracotta is ideal — it's dense, it breathes, and it looks the part. Frost-proof glazed pots work well too. If you're using plastic, choose the biggest you can accommodate and fill the bottom third with broken crocks or a few large stones before adding compost.

Size matters more than you might think. A rosemary in a 20cm pot will struggle; in a 35cm pot it will romp away. Bigger containers hold more compost, which means more water reserves and a slower temperature swing at the roots. As a rough guide:

• Thyme, oregano, sage: 25–30cm diameter minimum
• Rosemary: 35cm or larger
• Mint: 30cm, and sink the pot into the ground or stand it on a saucer if you're worried about runners escaping

Always use a soil-based or loam-rich compost rather than a pure peat-free multipurpose, and mix in a good handful of horticultural grit per pot. Drainage is everything for Mediterranean herbs. If water sits around the roots during a wet spell, no amount of wind tolerance will save them.

Shelter without shutting out the sun

You want to break the wind, not block the light. A solid fence or wall creates a howling eddy on the leeward side, which can be worse than the open breeze. What you need is something that filters air rather than stopping it.

• A slatted trellis, a woven willow screen or even a row of sturdy stakes will slow the wind down nicely.
• Group pots together. A cluster shelters itself, and the plants create a microclimate in the middle.
• Put the tallest, toughest plants on the windward edge — rosemary at the front line, mint cowering behind it.
• Use the patio itself. A corner where two walls meet, or the space beside a step, gives natural protection.

If you have a really exposed spot, consider a low cold frame or a raised trough with a solid back. It sounds like a fuss, but it turns an unusable corner into a productive one.

Water little and often in summer, barely at all in winter

Wind strips moisture from compost far faster than sun alone. On a breezy July day, a pot of thyme can dry out in a single afternoon. The trick is to water thoroughly until it runs out of the drainage holes, then leave it alone until the top couple of centimetres are dry. Little daily splashes only wet the surface and encourage weak roots.

A few practical habits:

• Water in the early morning or evening, never in the heat of the day.
• Check pots after any windy spell, even if it's been raining — rain often misses containers entirely.
• Mulch the surface with a centimetre of grit or gravel to slow evaporation and keep leaves off wet compost.
• In winter, cut right back. Mediterranean herbs hate soggy cold roots far more than they hate drought.

Feed sparingly. A weak liquid feed every fortnight through the growing season is plenty; too much nitrogen gives you lush, floppy growth that the wind will shred.

The rewards of a blustery corner

There is something quietly satisfying about snipping your own rosemary on a grey Tuesday in November, when the wind is rattling the fence panels and the rest of the garden has given up. Herbs grown hard — stressed by wind, kept lean, given sharp drainage — taste more intense than the soft, pampered things you buy in a plastic sleeve.

So embrace the breeze. Choose your tough customers, weight your pots, shelter them cleverly and water with a bit of judgement. Your patio may never be a suntrap, but it can still be a herb garden. And if a gust takes your best thyme plant in February, well — that's what the next pot is for.