How keep your Chives alive

As the weather warms up, your Chives will come back to life.

But wait until you've got lots of lush growth before you start picking again.

And remember, the more you pick, the more you'll be able to pick (if that makes sense...)

Keep on picking leaves as you need them to use fresh in the kitchen.

Chives dries well if you want to pick some and use later.

As long as your <Chives> keeps producing leaves, keep on picking.

As the weather cools in autumn you'll see growth slowing down. This is normal as your plant starts preparing for winter.

Chives will probably die back completely over winter. Don't worry, it's not dead, this is just what it does.

If you live in a particularly cold spot, or there's some gnarly weather forecast, move pots to a sheltered spot, like a corner of a porch, under the eaves of the house or even hard up against the wall of the house.

Keep Chives well-watered over summer, especially if growing it in a pot.

But, having said that, it will tolerate drought, so don't stress if you're going away for a weekend or even a week. Just water well, then move your plant to a shaded, protected spot while you're away.

If you're growing Chives in the ground, give a feed with something like Growmore in early spring.

Plants in pots need a bit more of a hand, so starting in spring, feed every four to six weeks with a slow release fertiliser, like XXXXX.

A feed will give your plant a little boost to keep you in stock with fresh leaves throughout the growing season.

Harvesting regularly is all you need to do to keep plants in tip top shape throughout the growing season.

But never remove too many leaves at any one time - your plants need a certain amount of leaf to keep growing.

It's best to remove flowers too as they form, otherwise your plant will put its efforts into flowering, as opposed to growing leaves. But don't worry if you leave some flowers on, the bees and butterflies will thank you.