Herb Garden Designs

Among the plans illustrated is one we have worked out here at the Herb Farm and elsewhere, that makes a really attractive and unusual plot. A good size for it is 20 feet square, intersected by two paths from the corners. At the centre there can be a small circular piece, with a rosemary bush, bay tree in a small tub or feature such as a sundial, according to disposition. The paths can be bordered with a lavender such as dwarf Munstead or L.`Atropurpurea Nana’; or with santolina or hyssop. The sides of the square are edged with decorative thymes, golden marjoram or similar suitable subjects, and the four triangles planted with a blend of decorative and culinary herbs.

Herbal BeautyAnother herb garden in Wiltshire, of larger dimensions, was based on two circular beds planted wheel-fashion, the surrounding borders being filled with large clumps of a great variety of herbs, with rosemaries each side of paths leading out to the main garden. The owners were surprised to find that herbs could give such a striking effect.

For the City of Leicester herb garden, the central feature was a knot-garden worked out in santolina, variegated rue, and thymes, surrounded by a circle of arc-shaped beds containing the full range of culinary herbs and scented mints, for educational purposes and general interest. There was a triple lavender hedge—tall, Hidcote Purple and pink, and the surrounding borders were planted appropriately with clumps of taller-growing herbs—bergamots, clary sage, wormwood and numerous others, intermingled with scented shrubs—azaleas, choisya, Eucalyptus gunnii, lilac, philadelphus and others, with jasmine and honeysuckle trailing over the boundaries.

Long- or Short-Term Planting

This is always a problem that has to be settled on the one hand by the expense proposed for the garden and, on the other hand, how soon a mature effect is required. For instance, generally reckoning, one plant per square foot will give some interest the first summer after planting, and a mature effect the second summer. After that, those clumps which have spread most will need to be thinned out, and any herbs that have overlapped divided. A thyme edging planted at 9 inches apart will look sparse the first year, reasonable the second and mature the third. But there are other factors. On some strong or rich soils considerably more growth may take place than on others, and this can only certainly be found out by planting to a happy mean and seeing which kinds spread and thrive most robustly. Growth on a light soil will be much more modest; at the other extreme, a lady who had the square design mentioned above had her herb garden on the site of an old hen-run and I found the progress of her plants perfectly startling. The pennyroyal, plants some 3 inches across when inserted, had made a teatray size clump by the end of the season; the alecost had ramped prodigiously; it was fantastic !

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