Herb garden in development..

I said I'd post some pics as I worked on the herb garden, and having gotten a new computer that will burn CDs so I can load them up here at work, here's how it's going:

This is the yard right after I first moved in:

This is the garden with landscape fabric to start killing the #$^&#% St. Augustine:

Here is the garden, paartially edged, and with the pavers in place:

Here it is, finally fullly edged with the plastic:

And here's a view with a few herbs planted in it. I've taken them out and put them in pots as I realized the soil isn't good enough. I've also edged it with bricks, and am amending the soil. Also, I'm going to put rose bushes all around the edge to give the herbs shade in the summer.

It's a herb garden on a grand scale. Can't even imagine what it will be when
all the plants are in place. Superb work! Please do post updates.

Oh Brigidily! I so excited to watch your progress. I love seeing things from beginning to end. Please be sure and post updates as you go. It's going to be gorgeous in the summer!

Wow! That is a lovely herb garden emerging there! Can't wait to see the spring photos.

I took an update photo yesterday -- I've lined it with bricks and it's deep enough for plenty of good soil, I hope!
edited to say Thanks so much for the kind comments!


This message was edited Dec 7, 2006 10:17 AM

Oh, brigidlily, this is going to be just magnificent. a real, traditional, herb garden. with plenty of room for everything. I really am jealous. and roses around it besides? what could be better?? I'll be watching for updates :0)

gram

Thanks, gram! If it works in the yard like it works in my imagination, I'll sell tickets for viewing it alternate Thursdays! But in reality, I do think, with a lot of work, it will be a pretty garden. Remember, down here the summers don't let things stay too pretty for too long.

And the roses are really a practical matter, since herbs don't tend to like it as hot as it gets.

Not that I mind on the aesthetic front!

I'll post more as progress is made. And thanks again for the encouragement!

Tickets for viewing? I was hoping for a tea party in the garden a la China Bayles & Ruby Wilcox!

Wonderful design!! I'm glad you enlarged the middle so you have room for a sculptural element without blocking the pathway... It's going to be lovely!

Herbs like good soil (well draining is probably the most critical thing), so a raised bed will work beautifully... Herbs don't mind if the soil isn't very deep, even a couple of inches seems OK for thyme and oregano, and you can mound it up in the middle of the beds.

Basil is the one herb that I've tried that seems to do best with more water, deeper soil, bigger containers, etc... it's just got different needs from the other "mediterranean" type herbs.

Oh, High Tea in The Garden... I could do that... everyone can wear "summer whites" -- need I specify gloves and hat? If only I can get the boyfriend to dress up as Jeeves and walk around silently with a tray...

critter, I'm planning on having some stuff in pots in these, especially until I can get some reliable microclimate data for things such as stevia and tarragon. That's what time will teach me. I figure if I can get it to where roses will grow at the border, I'll be able to get the rest going pretty well. Coneflowers grow wild around here, and that will be a definite element along with yarrow. I HOPE to establish creeping thyme around the pavers but it gets mighty hot. (Have I mentioned that?) (More than a dozen times?) Maybe the roses will give it enough shade to let the thyme take. I will most likely have basil in a huge pot in the center of one of the quadrants.

Croquet anyone? "everyone can wear "summer whites" -- need I specify gloves and hat?" I love it! Really worth all your trouble Brigidlily. We can't wait... and I for one want to hear your "heat" test results on herbs. : )) pod

brigid - my DH volunteers to dress up as Jeeves and walk around silently with a tray. He says only a fool would give up such a wonderful opportunity to be surrounded by women. LOL!

oh pots... reminds me of the other comment I meant to make... in the photo where you first put some plants in, looks like you installed some half-buried pots as garden elements... I liked them, could just see thyme spilling out from them....

What do you plan to put around the pavers? Given your heat, I'm thinking thyme might grow better there if you mulched around rather than putting gravel, or maybe you're planning to leave it bare. ? Thyme will layer itself and root down through a thin layer of mulch just fine.

Luckily, I have a collection of teapots, so no one will be forced to wander around looking for a cuppa (here is Miss Louisa May Alcat keeping guard over them)... just need to find that dratted recipe for crumpets!

g_m, the offer of your DH is most graciously accepted; please have him practice keeping his nose in the air over the winter...

critter, I hope I can establish creeping thyme -- thanks for the tip about mulch! That might just do it!

Goodness! How do you keep Miss Louisa from knocking the teapots down?

In all her years with me (12 so far -- she had originally been thrown into a dumpster as a wee kitten) she has only broken one, and that really wasn't her fault. She's amazing. As a bonus, she did pick my least favorite teapot!

I'm impressed with Miss Louisa. HRH the Lady Loki likes to push things off shelves to watch them fall. We've never been able to break her of this habit. I bought one of those TattleTale devices with motion sensor that set off a shrieking alarm when activated. It's supposed to scare the cat away from the table/shelf/counter etc by sounding the alarm as soon as the motion is detected. Works on the other two, but not on the Queen. Oh no, not her. She simply lays down on the device and muffles the sound with her furry body until the battery wears out. She walks non-plussed across double stick tape, merely shaking her back paws as she goes. She tests Scat Mats with her paw, finds the dead spots (with no or minimal zap) and then strategically walks over them. Somalis are definitely a different type of cat!

Well, she IS the direct inverse of Miss Louisa, who will disappear into thin air the moment there is a sound she doesn't recognize! Bless her heart, her picture is in the dictionary by "scaredy-cat". Lady Loki sounds amazing -- isn't it incredible how intelligent other species are? Sometimes I wonder how we got to the top. By killing the others, I guess.

You think we are at the top? HA! We are merely the servants of out furry & feathered masters. LOL!

I love croquet! and I'm pretty sure I could muster up a pair of gloves. I have to warn you I don't look good in hat, though LOL.

I really like the idea of half-buried pots. I was planning on putting some annuals in with my herbs...marigolds, nasturtiums, and of course, the annual herbs like basil. everybody's so full of good ideas. hope you don't mind if I steal the little ones. I'd really like to steal the whole garden (huge smile)

It would be interesting to see a series of half buried pots of successive sizes, sort of like a water fall effect. If only I had the space..........sigh.

that does sound nice, mermaid. if only we could do everything we have in our heads.

I'd meant to address the half-buried pots -- those were broken ones I just set there for housing for my friends of the amphibian persuasion, and when it gets going, I'll install them again. IMHO, toad/frog housing is essential. A carpet of creeping thyme would be wonderful, sort of spilling out the "front door" -- and as I had planned on trying to carpet the paths with CT, maybe I could incorporate that... make a whole story out of the thing... I am putting in a leprechaun pushing a wheelbarrow who is rather taken with a pretty girl in a bonnet... hmmm...

Okay! I have to return my sweetie's truck to him this afternoon, so as long as I was at M&D, and as long as they had cow manure and soil... I'll be putting 160 pounds of manure and 800 pounds of dirt in the herb garden over the weekend. Sure hope that little bitty truck makes it. ;) With that down, it shouldn't be too hard to get the soil to where the roses will like it. (Or hopefully LOVE it!)

If I were a rose, I would :0) how on earth do you have time this close to Christmas to play with 1000 lbs of anything besides candy canes and fruit cakes (some of which weigh about 1000 lbs)

Soak those fruit cakes in enough quantity and types of spirit and you'll be inspired to try many things. :)

If this garden does EVERYTHING I want, I won't have to go to the store for ingredients!

I got the manure down, and most of the soil (I overbought -- but have no fear! I'll use it eventually!) and as soon as I can put down some compost I'll get out the tiller (a little Honda) and by planting time it should be nice.

gram, I used to bake a different batch of cookies every day, starting December first. Now, the only cookies I bake are pepperkakor (the one year I didn't bake those, I never heard the end of it), the tree is up and decorated, and the shopping is done (I think). I like the LS gardening method -- when do you water? When it's time to clean house! I think the key is no longer having four children underfoot (five if you count my ex).

Yum, I love pepperkakor! Are you going to post the recipe?

My aunt brought a suitcase full of Lubecker marzipan, Lebkuchen Hetzen & Pfeffernusse when she arrived in October. I still need to bake the Honigkuchen and we've already eaten the Stollen! Guess I'll have to make do with the Pannetone now. I'm going to try grinding some roasted chestnuts in the coffee grinder to see if I can get enough chestnut flour to make a Castagnacio.

Come to think of it, you may need to sell tickets to tour your garden after all. That may be the only way to accomplish effective crowd control. In fact, you may need a lottery system to distribute the tickets.

I just got some lemon-cream cheese pressed cookies out of the oven. haven't made those in a couple of years (gave DH one warm from the oven..got a big smile there). I'm supposed to be working (sssssh!)..I work from home on Mon & Fri. Just thought I'd throw some cookies in the oven on my lunch hour and got a little carried away.

If this garden DOESN'T do everything you want, it's ungrateful LOL. you're giving it everything it's heart desires...all that nice manure and compost ;0) there's no such thing as too much manure, is there? YOU are too funny "five if you count my ex" ROTFL

mermaid, sounds like you're quite the baker. and fancy at that! I mostly just do cookies. I have all my MIL's Italian recipes, but I don't make all of them because I'm allergic to nuts. maybe a French silk pie for Christmas, but that's technically not baking.

Well don't let MIL's Italian recipes die out!!!! Post them on DG or send them to moi!
.....and don't forget the lemon-cream cheese pressed cookie recipe while you are at it.

My DH is half Italian. There are many Italian baking recipes that can be made without nuts. The Italian grocer in our town carries a Pannetone that is plain, and one with dried fruit but no nuts. Germans do use a lot of nuts in the Christmas baking. Many of the recipes substitute ground nuts for the flour.

Do you react to pignoli as well? I ask this because pine trees are monocots like grasses, not dicots like most other tree nuts such as almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts.

If I can remember to bring the recipe, I'll be glad to post it. These are GREAT cookies -- I have a friend who absolutely dislikes sweets, and he ate them like most of us eat potato chips. Y'all are making me hungry right now.

Extra calories are allowed in the winter........we need the insulation to handle the cold.
:)

Absolutely! And this year, since the kids are grown and there are plans other than my own, we're doing Yule (although the "party" is Saturday, in between Yule and Christmas). So any baking has to be done in the next few evenings.

We generally do Yule one year and Christmas the next -- it allows everyone to keep holiday bickering ("we visited your folks last year!") to a minimum.

Remembered the recipe!

PEPPERKAKOR (Adapted from the recipe in "Scandinavian Cooking" -- a very small volume published by the Culinary Arts Institute too many years ago. I wish I could say it was my grandmother's recipe but alas she cooked from her head, not notes. She was most defintely Swedish, though! Sounded just like the chef...)

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbl. molasses
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbl. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cardamom
sliced or slivered almonds

Bring everything to room temperature, of course! Beat butter until soft and then gradually cream in sugar. Ad the egg, and beat well. Blend in the molasses. Don't beat it too much or you'll start things separating. Sift in the dry ingredients and blend well. CHILL, preferably overnight. Roll it out as thin as you can get it, cut with moon and star cookie cutters. Put an almond in the center of each cookie, place on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake 5 - 7 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove to racks ASAP.

I'll enjoy them in the middle of the herb garden tonight! Happy Yule, Y'all!

Thanks for the recipe. I'd better go get more molasses when I pick up the dark sugar beet syrup for the Honigkuchen.

The original recipe called for dark Karo; that's one of my adjustments.