HUNDREDS of people will learn some herbal secrets today and over the weekend when award winning organic herb grower Jekka McVicar opens her Alveston herb farm to the public.

"Previous open days have attracted a great rsponse from the public and we're looking forward to another busy weekend," said Jekka, a nine-time Chelsea Gold Medallist, who has been putting the finishing touches to her entry in next month's Chelsea Flower Show (May 24-28)

Inspired by flavours from the Far East, Italy, France and the British Isles, Jekka returns to Chelsea with another exciting display, guaranteed to get both serious gardeners and window box enthusiasts alike reaching for their trowels and compost.

Grow It - Eat It is the simple theme for her latest display through which Jekka urges people to forget the increasingly popular supermarket salad bag and instead grow it themselves.

Part of the display is dedicated to a stunning assortment of salad herbs from around the world, their ribbons of colour forming waves across the garden. Jekka has carefully selected each plant to offer visitors a practical insight into the kinds of salads they can grow themselves in their own garden or on a window sill. Salad herbs featured include Chicory Italico Rosso, Rocket, Chervil, Mizuna, Spinach, Kale Nero de Toscana, Sorrel del Belleville and Pak Choi.

The other part of the exhibit is given over to a wonderful exuberance of aromatic, culinary and medicinal herbs designed to balance perfectly the more formal structure of the salad garden.

"My mantra this year has to be 'fresh is best'," said Jekka who has been running her farm in Shellards Lane, Alveston for the last 18 years.

"I'm always amazed that so many people buy prepared salads when they are such an easy and beautiful thing to grow yourself, whether you have a garden or not. At the height of the season, it takes just 18 days for the salad herbs I'm using in my display to get from seed to table. And all you need is a grow bag or a few pots.

"Last July I sowed a variety of salad herbs in a grow bag and I was still picking mustard and rocket in February.

Jekka has commissioned Hilary Thuman of Garden Requisites in Bath to make a Gothic arch of galvanized steel wirework for the centre of her elliptic display and intricate lattice-work steel panels to contain the garden, complementing beautifully Jekka's designs and sympathetic to the environment.

Giving visitors to Chelsea a head start in recreating her designs at home, Jekka has launched four easy-to-grow salad herb seed collections, incorporating many of the plants in this year's display.

The salad seed collections will be available to buy at the Chelsea Flower Show or online from www.jekkasherbfarm.com.