Herbaholic’s Herbarium

Above is a photo of part of my garden back in June 2007, compared to what it looked like when I first took it on, its a paradise, but it still needs a lot of work to get it like I want it to be. It’s not a huge space, I’ll actually measure it and post the area when I get chance, but I manage to cram in lots of herbal delights. Below is a list of what can be found in my garden currently the numbers in () are the number of varieties I have.

The apothecary bed didn’t work out, that’s the centre bed in the above photo. So this year I’m going to change things about and create a Tusser Mussie bed, that will contain herbs for scent and for bringing in the home to make scented herb displays. I’m leaving the apothecary rose in the centre, and already I have new plants of lavender, hyssop, thyme, pinks, feverfew, cowslips, sweet violets and gilliflowers to add. I’ll add other scented herbs from Tusser’s poem, I can transplant some columbines that seeded themselves near the hedgehog house. I can pop marigiolds, sweet williams and snapdragons in as well, and the Tudor Tapestry stocks I’ve just grown from seed, granted not a heritage variety but stocks were on Tusser’s list! Hopefully by the time it’s finished in the summer and spring it will smell wonderful.

When I first came to live here, the garden was a lawn edged with a thin rectangular border with weeds in. It was bland and uninspiring, one of the first jobs we did was create a wildlife pond, from there a large straight bed in front of the garage wall, then came the first circle in middle of the lawn, which was about 1/3rd the size of what it is now.

But finally I decided that the lawn had to go and we made the circular bed larger and raised it up and created a blue slate path around it. Apart from the circle bed and wanted to add and replace a few plants in the side borders I’m happy with that area of the garden and we can now move on to the side of the garden which runs down the side of the house. Plans for that include a veggie patch with herbs for companion planting and a scented seating area. I have a honeysuckle, jasmine ready for that job and some sweetpeas grown from seed, which should give off a wonderful fragrance in the Summer.

This year the pond needs a revamp, couchgrass has managed to wedge itself into some of the baskets and threatens to erradicate the meadowsweet that’s been growing in the pond for about 4 years now. I also have a list of plants that I want to add which include mandrake, solomon’s seal, primrose, mint bush, alecost, tansy, english mace, white horehound, blackcurrant sage and raspberry sage.

So that’s my herb garden so far, I’ll post new photos as things develop and change but thought I’d share what I’d created so far, my own little Herbal Haven!