Wild Hope Homestead

The Herb Garden has been known as The Herb Garden for some months now, which has been a little awkward since it didn’t have any herbs in it. What it did have was a collection of stumps and a vision in my head. And a colour-coordinated diagram. While I can quite happily plant out ornamental garden beds without a plan (unless you count the swooshy, ever-evolving ideas in my mind as a plan), I find I need to make plans for my edible beds to make sure I can fit in everything I want.

The Herb Garden is the biggest space I’ve ever devoted to herbs. Initially I thought it was too big for my herb needs, but once you chuck in a few small fruit trees and some flowers for the bees it will fill up pretty fast and should be a great space. Thanks to the Great Stump Exodus I’ve finally been able to do something exciting in there. I have been driven by a mad urge to get as many of my potted plants into the garden as I can before our upcoming holiday. The Sister-in-law will be housesitting for us but I don’t want to leave her with masses of needy plants to water. Plus, many of the potted plants look downtrodden and are begging to be set free, not least of all, the herbs.

I am pleased to report that I have planted my dwarf almond tree (Garden Prince) and dwarf apricot tree (Aprigold) in The Herb Garden. And not just any old plant plonking job; I have raised them up a little with octagonal brick surrounds. I pilfered the bricks from the corner of the chicken run and various other hidey holes around the garden. Now, I haven’t mortared them together or anything, they are just arranged, sitting on top of each other in a natural state. I would like to say this is in case I ever need to adjust them, but really it’s because I can’t be bothered. The first reason sounds thoughtful though, doesn’t it? It will do for now anyway. I still have the dwarf orange tree left to plant in the centre back of the bed but it will have to wait until another stump has been removed and until I can pilfer enough bricks to make another surround. While I’m talking about pilfering, I’m also pilfering some rocks from the chicken run to use as stepping stones. I wonder how many times I can use ‘pilfer’ in one blog post? Don’t worry, I’m intending to turn the chickens’ dwindling climbing corner into a nibbly herb corner.

I wanted to plant an edging along the front of The Herb Garden to keep things looking tidy year-round but didn’t want the formality of a clipped hedge. Naturally, I decided to edge it with a native grass. Mulling over the small grasses in my head, I decided on Carex albula (white sedge), which is a pale green/whitish colour. I have planted a few but that is all I have at the moment. So clever, choosing a species I have very few of for a border that requires over 30. They will only divide so far. I will have to reproduce some more. Whoa, that sounds bad out of context! Let’s strike that comment from the record…

What else have I planted in The Herb Garden? Thyme, chives and garlic chives so far. Bit by bit we go. At the moment I am pilfering and arranging stepping stones so I can figure out where to position the oregano and rosemary. The problem is, summer has now reached the level that I call stinkin’ hot, so all gardening progress has slowed to the pace of a disorientated sloth. My green fingers are getting twitchy…

Garlic chives and common chives