You get home from the supermarket, delighted with yourself for finding a bushy pot of basil for an absolute bargain price. The smell is divine!

You plan to use it for a delicious mozzarella and tomato salad at a barbecue at the weekend. Two days later, you excitedly go to pick some of those delicious green leaves and find…they’ve shrivelled and wilted to nothing; the soil is bone dry!

Potted herbs never seem to last as long as we hope or expect them to, leaving us with food AND money wasted. Despite this, we keep going back to them because a meal can always be improved with a sprinkling of fresh herbs. What’s the answer to this dilemma?

The Handy Herb Tool

Using a self-watering herb keeper can keep your potted herbs alive for far longer. This reduces food waste and allows you to cook with mouthwatering fresh herbs more often.

If you grow your own fresh herbs, this device can be really useful during hot weather which makes it unsuitable to grow herbs outside.

Cole & Mason claim their Herb Keeper can keep herbs fresh for up to 10 days longer than if you just leave them in the pot they come in.

The genius is found in the automatic watering system. This takes the form of a felt pad that sits in the bottom of the herb keeper with four felt “legs” that descend into a water reservoir below.

You place your pot on the felt pad, which regulates the amount of water the plant needs by drawing water up through the felt from the base. This results in maximum lushness for the plant and minimal effort for you! There’s also an easy to fill lip to prevent spillages when topping up the reservoir.

As well as improving your cooking, fresh herbs also make your kitchen look great, and can fill your home with the beautiful scent of herbs such as basil, chives, parsley or coriander (unless you have the coriander-hating gene)!

This countertop gadget is so simple and effective you’ll wonder how you ever lived without one!