Herb Garden Make-Over

The herb garden showing new life on 3 March, 2012.

The small space between the carport and the cellar stairwell was a weedy area when we

 moved here in 2010.

I did little with the space that first year, other than some half-hearted grubbing which revealed shallow gritty soil with the roots of the nearby box elder tree sending out woody tentacles just below the surface.

In March of 2011 after I had hacked and dug to exhaustion, I hired my Amish nieghbor, Delilah, to help finish the transformation of this plot into a small herb garden.

We finished excavating the soil down to a depth of about 15 inches, put down landscape fabric, and mixed some good 'dirt' in before replacing and leveling the soil.

I moved sage plants which had been over-whelmed in the perennial border, divided lemon thyme, and moved in some lemon balm I found growing at the side of the house.

I divided Lambs Ears and placed it in the center as a focal point and to contribute silver color amongst the shades of green.

Along the cement wall I planted ajuga, also moved from an over-grown existing planting along the carport.

A division of nepeta and a decorative oregano were placed in the dry back corner.

The only plants bought specifically for this venture were several small pots of creeping thyme and three starts of lavender vera.

1 April, 2012, taken after an early evening rain.

4 April, 2012.

Thyme has billowed over the edge of the planting onto the cement carport ramp.

Johnny-jump-ups [viola tricolor] have self-seeded here and there.

By 25 May it has become evident that  Lambs Ears has taken over the lower end of the garden, shading out the stepping stones and the creeping thyme in that area, crowding the sage plants.

Last week by the time I was free to do recreational gardening [as opposed to picking string beans, and weeding the veggies] I had decided that a number of overly vigorous plants needed to be removed.

When the worst of the days heat had seeped into the cooler temps of evening, I turned on the outside lights and proceeded to ruthlessly uproot Lambs Ears, and a towering nepeta, and gave the oregano and lemon balm a severe pruning.

I tore up mats of ajuga, replacing it with some starts of creeping thyme.

The Lambs Ears was surprisingly difficult to remove as the stems had sent invasive roots in every direction.

I placed two more small stepping stones where the Lambs Ears had larruped and set out several lavenders which I raised from seed.

Next spring I will locate some well-behaved silver thyme to plant in bare spots around the stones.

This little garden doesn't aspire to being an impressive collection of specimen plants.

It is a tiny homely space with some of my favorite herbs--handy by to touch and enjoy

their scents and forms.

The barrel planter at the back right corner of the herb garden is planted to kitchen herbs each spring.

Here are seedlings of Red Rubin basil, a large-leaved green basil and cilantro.

Future seasons may see such edging plants as seed-grown signet marigold, or pansy

tucked into any open space.