The warmer days we can count on now mean we can grow the demanding heat-loving plants that sulked through June. Plants used in Asian cooking can shine on your late-summer menus if you start a potful now.

You say your space is too small? Well, do you have a sunny spot just 17 by 17 inches? A pot that size will allow you to grow a handful of herbs that enliven Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Indian cooking.

Be sure that the container you choose has adequate holes for draining, and fill it with potting soil.

Go to the herb section of a nursery for the herbs suggested below, and you can select some that suit your particular culinary tastes.

• Lemongrass likes Northwest summers. It's not hardy here in winter, but will grow nicely during the warmest part of the summer.

• Perilla, the beautiful "Asian basil" used raw for flavor in summer dishes, is also called "shiso." You'll see red, purple, green or patterned perilla. Perilla can be chopped into a salad for color, or used like a roll-up wrap. Spread a leaf with a combination of shredded carrots, chopped cucumber and seasoned rice for a tasty snack. You can even drink it — see the recipe accompanying this story.

• Herbal cilantro swerves from culture to culture, enlivening many cuisines. You'll find it in four-packs, showing off greens that resemble flat parsley but are distinctly more pungent. This leafy herb grows happily when contained. It's used chopped into Asian salads, in fish-head soup or any fish dish. And if it goes to seed in your pot, you have coriander seeds, a necessity in middle European stews, some gingerbread recipes and curry powder.

A Chinese summertime drink

One recipe Jean Wang shared is for a refreshing shiso drink, which she said is enjoyed during the summer in China.

Shiso drink

1 bunch shiso (also known as perilla; a bunch produces about 2 cups of leaves)

2 cups water

1 cup sugar or honey

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1 or 2 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

1. Wash shiso well.

2. Boil the water, add chopped shiso. Leave in a few moments, until water turns blue-purple.

3. Strain out leaves; add sweetener, rice vinegar and lemon juice. Liquid will become magenta, "almost like Campari." Add a bit more vinegar if it's not clear.

4. Refrigerate and serve diluted with 2-3 parts water, over ice.

• Garlic, of course, multitasks even more than cilantro. Midwinter is the normal time for planting garlic crops, but you can use a shortcut. Take a clove apart and tuck individual clovelets about ½-inch deep in the pot. Shoots that emerge make good additions to stir-fry and wraps.

• If you can track down some garlic chives for your pot (Allium tuberosum) you can plant a prized ingredient in Chinese cooking. The garlic chive leaves are flat, whereas regular chives are round and hollow. They're perfectly perennial here, and you can transfer them to the open garden in the fall. Jean Wang, a master gardener in Bellevue who is my authority on Chinese cooking vegetables, says that garlic chives are often used chopped with slivers of pork or chicken, bok choi, or Nappa cabbage to make a main dish. Plus, they work well in potstickers. The flavor of garlic chives is more intense than the familiar chives.

• Since seeds leap out of the ground in July, you may want to sprinkle mizuna, or edible chrysanthemum, or mixed Asian seeds in one corner of the pot. Resulting greens can be used when either infant-sized or full grown. Keep the pot watered and fertilize every three weeks with a low-nitrogen liquid formula.

To meet master gardeners specializing in Asian vegetables, visit the Washington State University Master Gardener Demonstration Garden in Bellevue, Wednesdays and Saturdays between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. The garden is located on Southeast 16th Street between 148th Avenue Southeast and 156th Avenue Southeast in the Lake Hills Greenbelt.

Garden expert Mary Robson, retired area horticulture agent for Washington State University/King County Cooperative Extension. Her e-mail is marysophia@earthlink.net.