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Thursday, June 7, 2012

My Herb Garden

I haven't shared much about my herb garden this year. It is a rock garden located near the kitchen --- seperate from the vegetable garden. I tried my best to start these herbs from seed. In the end, I took advantage of a 2 for $3 sale at Lowes and bought 4" pots.

It looks scarce, but I used proper spacing because they all grow fairly large. This is a permanent bed with perennials. Here is how things look today:


This is the left side of the bed.

The middle. (Around the parsley plants are self-sown borage plants. This is why borage is no longer in my herb garden; it reseeds itself everywhere! I want my herb garden to be relatively maintenance free.)
 
The right side. The gap in the middle left is for a Chamomile (that I can't get to germinate) and the gap to the left of the oregano is for cumin that I can't get to germinate or find a plant for anywhere.
 
I couldn't get it all to fit on one picture, but below is an idea of how the entire bed looks. The pic is a little sloppy, but it is the best I could do to merge the pictures. I should have used Adobe.


The herb garden continues on the other side of the patio; just under our window. I circled the Lavendar; they are all rather small right now. The flowers are zinna and are there until the lavendar gets larger and takes over (probably next year). We need some more rocks to finish the corners off.
 
In a pot next to the herb garden, I have some Chocolate Mint. It smells heavenly. I put the mint in a pot so it wouldn't take over my herb garden. Mint is invasive and remember - the herb garden is supposed to be relatively maintenance free. Sorry for the blur.
 
I can't wait till everything grows in. Having an herb garden and access to fresh herbs ia great. The return on your investment is quick because herbs are so expensive. If you want to dip your toe into gardening, an herb garden is the way to do it. They are relatively carefree, disease free, and (most) don't have to be replanted every year.
 
Need some cilantro, parsley, basil, sage, thyme, or rosemary....just step outside!

4 comments:

  1. I so love my herb garden! I agree with you in saying it is relatively maintenance free and the return on your investment is ten fold in no time!

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  2. Lemon balm is a type of mint and is incredibly invasive. It has taken over the whole end of my house and a large part of my front flower bed (I never did plant it on the end of the house, it spread there by itself).
    I do like your herb garden though, I am pretty sure I couldn't do the rocks here though, they tend to wash away when it rains (we tried it in a walkway once here.) because the water just washes over the red clay.
    Very nice variety of herbs.

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  3. You are right about how quickly herbs grow. Last year I planted one little oregano plant. This year, I have had to beat it back ruthlessly. It has decided it is bent on world domination.

    I cut 2 cups crammed as tightly as possible into the measuring cup from the oregano and used it to make oregano pesto. You can't even tell I cut the stuff. I may have to make more pesto. Yum.

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  4. I got cumin to germinate by sowing seed bought for culinary purposes in Spring. Unfortunately it died after about a month and I have no idea why. I plan to try again this spring.

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