"Oh, I've all the fresh herbs needed for Christmas," he said, "and that's because I keep them all in pots. Not the pots they are bought in, in the case of those I don't grow from seed, for you need to give them space to grow. But just think what is available now, at the beginning of December, and will still be going in three weeks' time. There is parsley - lots of it. Chervil: unfortunately didn't sow enough seed, but it will last and be fresh. Number three is winter savoury, several plants of them, looking like little trees. Number four is chives, getting a bit weak now, but surviving. They will be dead by New year, but a couple of months later they spring up, fresh and green. Five is mint, protected under a small bush and falling all over the place; still pure green and undamaged. Six is burnet, going strong. Seven is hyssop, showing signs of weariness, but still going. Then woodruff, first cousin to cleevers, is still peppery and green. Nine is lemon balm, tattered, but just in it. A bit of lovage makes ten.
"Now, this is not to decry dried herbs such as `herbes de Provence', which are ritually bought on summer holidays," he concluded. So don't look down on people who do a lot of their gardening in pots. It has several advantages. First, if you are dealing with herbs or trees in their first and second years, you don't have to hunker down or bend to care for them. You have them on a table or ledge and can water, cut or feed them without straining your back.
More, in the case of the herbs, you can control the invasion of slugs and snails by putting your table legs into saucers of water, and further stack the odds against them, by first covering the surface of the table with coarse gritty sand. As to trees, there are those who believe in putting down the seed, be it acorn, beech mast, lime or ash or whatever straight into the place where it is to grow. But there is great pleasure in watching the seed sprout and the little treelet make its way. It is easy, then, to make a present of one or more of them.
A bowl with half a dozen pinus pinea, a bit drawn, one has to admit, but growing on bravely, has been a family decoration for the Christmas dinner table for three years now. Trickery. Self-indulgence, but they will survive and thrive when put out into the ground.