Herb Garden

Last year we started a herb garden.  At one end of the garden we built six boxes using 2" by 10" rough-cut slab lumber.  Each box was 4' by 4' and divided into quarters.

 We buried the boxes 6" into the ground.  The area outside of the boxes was covered with several inches of gray river gravel.  Pots of annual herbs were scattered amongst the boxes.

Some of the herbs are annuals while most are perennials.  Many were started indoors and transplanted outdoors when spring arrived.  Some were direct seeded in the boxes the first year and now self seed each year.

Below you can see one box with the annual Basil along with perennials Chives, Thyme, and Lemon Balm.

Here you have all perennials - Thyme, Garlic Chives, Marjoram and Lemon Bergamot.

The annual Basil shares this box with the perennials Oregano, Greek Oregano and Lavender Bergamot. 

In some of the boxes I have seeded flowers for their evening scents.  Here I have Sage and Spearmint with Nicotina blooming in the other two sections.  I may eventually replace the flowers with herbs and build myself a scented garden as well. 

 Here are my Evening Scented Stocks.  Right now they fill three sections of a box with Spearmint finishing off the fourth.  If you have never grown Evening Scented Stocks, I highly recommend you try them.  The flowers are not much to look at but their fragrance is absolutely wonderful.  They reseed themselves quite nicely.

In this box are two varieties of Lavender as well as Chocolate Mint (my favorite to dry for tea) and a second crop of Dill.  The dill grew almost 6' tall this year so after harvesting it, I reseeded by hand so the tall plants wouldn't reseed all over the whole herb garden.  I will have more dill to dry before the season is over.  The Chocolate Mint was cut right back when it started to get scraggly looking and now I am able to dry more again. 



 Here is the Sage earlier in the season in full bloom.

Chives bloom throughout the year.  I deadhead the flowers and they continue to bloom.

 And lastly here are the blooms of the Garlic Chives.  They are quite pretty and actually have a nice scent - not at all garlicky unless you touch the plant to disturb the natural oils.