Grow your own cocktail garden
A cocktail is a wonderful way to enjoy the flavours of spring or summer. There’s something special about sipping on a fruity drink or classic concoction in one of our Chef & Brewer beer gardens.
Growing your own cocktail garden is simple. With a few herbs, chillies and citrus flavours, you’ll be the envy of your neighbours and can create classic cocktails at home. If you’ve got a garden outside, a greenhouse, windowsill or a roof garden, you can grow so many cocktail ingredients with just a little space.
Here, we’ll look at the plants you need to grow your own cocktail garden and the exciting drinks you can make to impress your nearest and dearest.
Essential cocktail ingredients and how to grow them
From mint and rosemary to blackberries and strawberries, soon you’ll be growing and enjoying homemade cocktails in the summer sunshine.
Mint
Why mint is great
Mint is an essential cocktail garnish. It brings some added freshness and cuts through citrus flavours in cocktails like mojitos. A mint julep is also a thing of beauty.
How to grow mint
It’s best planted in spring, although potted mint can be planted right through to autumn – just try and avoid hot dry spells. As an invasive herb, it’s best to pot mint in your garden, making it ideal to grow in a pot on your window ledge too.
Mint thrives in most soil types, in either direct sun or light shade. We recommend using a soil-based compost, which you’ll need to replace every couple of years as mint is perennial.
And when it’s time to harvest, mint is best used fresh when the volatile oils are at their most intense. Start harvesting as soon as the leaves appear in spring and continue through to the first frosts.
Rosemary
Why rosemary is great
Rosemary’s aromatic leaves bring a distinct flavour to cocktails like our Hedgerow Fizz. It’s a hardy herb and easy to grow in your garden or on your windowsill.
How to grow rosemary
This evergreen herb grows all year, so you can add it to your cocktails and cooking throughout the seasons. As it hails from the Mediterranean, rosemary thrives in a sunny, sheltered spot and needs well-drained soil. It does have difficulties in heavy clay soils, especially in winter.
It’s perfect to grow along a garden path, where you can breathe in its aroma every time you walk past, or in a pot in your kitchen. Just remember that it can grow quite big, so you’ll need to use it and trim it back regularly.
Rosemary is best planted in spring, and as it’s a type of sage, it’s ideal for growing alongside other sages like lavender and thyme for a beautiful herb garden.
Basil
Why basil is great
Basil is grown for its aromatic and peppery leaves and is a wonderful addition to cocktails such as our Basil Grande.
How to grow basil
It isn’t a hardy herb, so basil is best grown in warm conditions like a kitchen windowsill or in a greenhouse. You can grow it outside during summer in the UK, but it needs a sheltered, warm and sunny spot.
You can buy basil from seed or as a young plant. Start your basil off in pots of moist peat-free compost or good quality multi-purpose compost on a warm bright windowsill (ideally around 20°C).
Water it sparingly until it starts to germinate, then only when needed. When your seedlings are big enough to handle, pot them in individual pots. You’ll want peat-free, soil-based compost mixed with multi-purpose compost.
Keep your potted plants indoors or in your greenhouse and they may be able to handle outside conditions in July or August.
Lemons and limes
Why lemons and limes are great
These citrus fruits bring a dash of acidity to cocktails and truly sing in the likes of our Hedgerow Fizz, English Garden and Dark & Stormy.
How to grow lemons and limes
You can grow lemons and limes in the UK and can buy trees to pot to create your very own fruit garden. Plant them in individual pots so you can move their location if you need to.
Lemons can tolerate outside conditions and temperatures down to 5°C, but it’s best to keep them in a greenhouse, conservatory or glazed porch. Limes need more tropical conditions, so they will struggle outside.
Pot them in spring and don’t overwater, as they’ll struggle in waterlogged soil. Water them just once a week during summer, using rainwater if you can. If you only have tap water available, let the water stand for 24 hours before watering.
Raspberries
Why raspberries are great
With their sweet and tangy taste, raspberries are a lovely accompaniment to summer cocktails like our Raspberry Mojito or a refreshing raspberry gin fizz.
How to grow raspberries
Raspberries are grown on canes and can fruit for around ten years if you look after them carefully. They’re also a great fruit for beginner gardeners.
There are two types of raspberries: summer fruiting and autumn fruiting. Plant raspberry canes around 45cm apart, with 1.8m between rows. You’ll need moist but free-draining, fertile soil in an open but sunny site. Your summer-fruiting canes will need support as they grow, but the autumn-fruiting varieties usually don’t.
Grow them in full sun to partial shade and pick the fruits when they are red and ripe.
Strawberries
Why strawberries are great
Offering summer sweetness and quintessential British flavour in spades, strawberries are a classic ingredient in fruity cocktails like strawberry daiquiris.
How to grow strawberries
Strawberries grow well in pots, hanging baskets, window boxes, strawberry planters and in the ground, so you can get a little green-fingered if you have limited space. You can even grow them on balconies and windowsills.
As a beginner, it’s best to buy strawberries as pot-grown plants in the summer or runners in the spring. Grow them in a pot or planter in a sheltered spot that gets plenty of sun. Before planting, add some well-rotted horse manure or garden compost to the soil.
Make sure you keep your strawberries well watered in hot weather and feed them regularly with a high potash feed. When the fruits are red all over, it’s time to pick your strawberries and get making your cocktails.
Blackberries
Why blackberries are great
Blackberries are a delicious cocktail ingredient that bring sweetness and a touch of tartness to drinks like brambles. They’re fairly easy to grow for beginner gardeners and don’t need much maintenance.
How to grow blackberries
Blackberries grow on canes, so buy bare-root plants in the winter. Soak them before planting and bury each stool up to the old soil mark. Water well and space 1.5m apart, as the plants can grow vigorously.
Just remember, you’ll need a little patience with growing blackberries, as they take two years to produce any fruit. But those cocktails will be worth the wait.
Chillies
Why chillies are great
You can’t beat the spice and warmth of a good chilli. And while they’ll liven up your curries and pasta sauces in the kitchen, they also bring added heat to cocktails like spicy margaritas.
How to grow chillies
Chillies are easy to grow and can be started from seeds in free-draining soil. Use a moist, peat-free compost and plant in small pots on a south-facing windowsill, greenhouse or patio.
You can start as early as January if you have a heated propagator or from March on your windowsill. When the first true leaves appear, pot each plant into its pot.
Keep your pot on the windowsill in the sun, or plant it out in your greenhouse when night temperatures are above 10°C.
Chef & Brewer cocktails to make with your home ingredients
Now that you’ve got your cocktail ingredients to hand, grab your cocktail shaker and mix away. You’ll get the fresh taste of the best Chef & Brewer cocktails in the comfort of your own home. And the next time you join us for a drink at your local countryside pub, you can compare flavour notes.
Hedgerow Fizz
This delightful cocktail offers up a touch of fizz with hints of both spring and summer. You’ll enjoy classic British flavours in an elegant spring cocktail to sip as you watch the sunset.
Ingredients:
Warner's Raspberry Gin
Belvoir Farm Sparkling Elderflower
A squeeze of lemon
Rosemary garnish
Raspberry garnish
How to make it:
Add 50ml of the Warners raspberry gin with 125ml sparkling elderflower and stir
Squeeze your lemon
Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and a raspberry
English Garden
The true flavours of England come together to make this cocktail sing. The elderflower gin brings floral notes which combine beautifully with the apple juice. Finish with a squeeze of lime picked from your lime tree and a mint garnish directly from your garden or windowsill.
Ingredients:
Warner's Elderflower Gin
Apple juice
A squeeze of lime
Mint garnish
How to make it:
Add 50ml of elderflower gin with 75ml of apple juice and mix well in your cocktail shaker
Pour the mixture into a glass
Cut your life in half and add a squeeze of lime
Garnish with mint leaves
Dark & Stormy
This classic rum-based cocktail is ideal for sitting by the fire on a cold winter’s night, but it also goes down beautifully in the garden in summer, dreaming of a getaway. Rum and ginger - it’s always a delightful combination.
Ingredients:
Warner's Spiced Botanical Rum
Belvoir Farm Ginger Beer
A squeeze of lime
Mint garnish
How to make it:
Add 50ml of rum with 125ml ginger beer in your cocktail shaker
Shake well and pour into your glass
Cut your lime in half and squeeze a dash into the cocktail
Garnish with mint from your garden to bring an added layer of freshness
Elderflower No-jito
This vibrant and alcohol-free concoction is bursting with the sweetness of elderflower and apple juice. Savour it on a summer’s day as you enjoy the blooms in your garden or simply relax in the sun.
Ingredients:
Belvoir Farm Elderflower Cordial
Apple juice topped
Schweppes lemonade
Mint garnish
How to make it:
Add 25ml elderflower cordial with 100ml apple juice and mix well in your cocktail shaker
Pour into a glass and top with the lemonade
Garnish with a couple of mint leaves from your garden
Blackcurrant Mule
The taste of British summer in one quick and easy-to-make mocktail, packed with berries, ginger and a dash of lime for some added zing. Summer perfection.
Ingredients:
Belvoir Farm Blackcurrant Cordial
Belvoir Farm Ginger Beer
Squeeze of lime
Raspberry garnish
How to make it:
Add 125ml ginger beer to your blackcurrant cordial and mix well
Cut your lime in half and squeeze into the mix
Garnish your mocktail with one or two raspberries from your garden
Tips for maintaining your cocktail herb garden
Planting is just the start. To make sure your cocktail ingredients turn into delicious drinks and thrive in years to come, you need to do your very best to look after them. These tips should help you keep everything on track when you grow your own cocktail garden.
✔ When it comes to harvesting your basil, use scissors or snips to cut the main stem just above a pair of leaves rather than picking individual leaves. This will help the plant become bushier and more productive.
✔ Take care when you pick your raspberries as they tend to crush quite easily. Ripe fruits should tumble into your hands with just a gentle tug.
✔ When growing chillies, you can increase the heat by giving the plant a little stress. Things like snapping off stems and fruit as soon as the fruit begins to set can mimic damage caused by animals in nature. While this may decrease your yield of chillies in the short term, those that grow will be spicier.
✔ While you might be tempted to bring your citrus trees indoors for the warmer temperatures, centrally heated rooms are too hot and dry. Citrus plants do better in humid conditions.
✔ Mint is slightly toxic to dogs, so keep it away from your four-legged family members.
Don’t be shy, give it a try
If you’d like to grow your own cocktail garden, there’s no better time to start than now. Even if that’s just getting your plan together in preparation for getting everything planted in time for next spring. You’ll soon be delighting in the fresh flavours of your garden in your homemade cocktails. You simply can’t beat it.
And if you fancy comparing notes with our bar staff, find your local Chef & Brewer countryside pub today and enjoy all that our cocktail menu has to offer.