Christopher Robin's Herb Garden - brand new!!

in the 'heart' of the Hundred Acre Cottage Garden...TA DA!! my landscaper built the bed (my design). so yesterday and today I actually planted some herbs...feels good :) It's cold & rainy here, but I don't care. Pooh & Eeyore are the caretakers, but I suspect they might do some munching. The invasive herbs (so far 3 oreganos, 6 mints, & chives) are planted in the chimney flues. I put some annuals in the top 3 to provide some color. want it to look good from the back, too, so our neighbors across our little lake have something to look at. there's some curly parsley I started from seed in the center.

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This message was edited May 17, 2007 9:35 AM

here's a closeup of some of the mints

here's a long view of the whole bed. it will be a cottage-style garden when it actually has plants in it. so far all it has is one rose. it's 70' long so I plant almost anything I want.

here's the crew working on putting in the chimney flues. turned out to be a pretty big job.

and one when they were building the dry-laid stone retaining wall. it runs the whole length of the bed on the lake side

Gram, I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!! It won't be long before it's all filled out and just gorgeous. Pooh and Eeyore will be very happy there.

thanks, brig. from you, that is a very great compliment, as I am a huge admirer of your herb garden.

I like that grampapa. : )
My daughter is having a house built with a pond about 50 ft from the back of her house, and has neighbors across the pond like you have. We have been thinking about what we could do to make that area look eyepleasing.

I hope you don't mind if we get some ideas from you. Yours is gonna look nice when everything grows, and fills in. : )

~Lucy

Hi, Lucy. help yourself if anything strikes your fancy. and thanks for the compliment.

Well, thank you, gram! The feeling is entirely mutual.

I must have gotten a couple of seedling markers mixed up -- what I had planted in the echinacea patch is turning out to be ground cherries. Oh, well -- I wanted both of them. I hope they grow well together! I took some pictures but can't post at the moment. I'll do the update thing next week, hopefully.

That's wonderful!!

I'm imagining a backdrop of some larger "shrubby" herbs, maybe sage or rosemary... and maybe some lavenders to either side?

The chimney liners and the little raised bed that they enclose are wonderful for culinary herbs like you've done... not only will they be contained, they'll also be easy to harvest and use! The more you pinch, the more they'll grow! :-)

Hi, critter. exactly! (great minds think alike!) I've already planted sage and an orange upright thyme on one side and a lavender and some dill on the other. I have lavender planted with some roses in another bed and I got a couple of volunteers in the rocks around my pool. so I'm not sure of the variety. it's either 'Hidcote' or 'Munstead'. I'm planting some nasturtium seed in front. I wintersowed some, but only 2 seeds germinated. and I also still have some rue and fennel seedlings that will grow too big for inside that will be planted outside.

If you want a taller lavender variety for a backdrop somewhere, I've got a hedge of 'Fat Spike' that's probably 2 feet tall and at least 3 1/2 feet tall in bloom... I don't think a garden can have too much lavender -- I'm just addicted to the scent!

Your fennel will be a nice feathery accent, and you might attract some black swallowtail caterpillers too! Nasturtiums are wonderful in an herb garden, I think, and the blooms make such a cheerful edible garnish (nibble carefully if you haven't eaten them before, some people find them to be pretty spicy/peppery, although the blooms are less so than the leaves).

I love the thought and care you put into your herb bed design... with the heart of the garden making such a statement, everything else you plant there will just flow into your design.

thanks, critter. I'm hoping that now that I'm retiring I'll have more time to cook and use the herbs. DH likes chamomile tea..so I'm going to get some German chamomile. besides, they're pretty!

I love lavender, too. I've started seeds for 'Lady'. I wanted a smaller one that I could use as a companion in my rose garden. and i bought a plant of 'Lacy Frills' last year, a white that should bloom this year for the first time. I want to try a pink 'Hidcote' this year. maybe I'll get a 'Fat Spike' too :0)

Here's a photo of the 'Fat Spike' lavender in bloom... This was taken in 2005, and it was even bigger/taller in bloom last year.

I pruned it back "at the right time" this spring, then we had a cold snap and I was horrified by the thought that I'd killed it... but it's greening up, filling in very nicely, and starting to send up a myriad of bloom stalks!

Somebody said there are two kinds of gardeners -- the ones who can grow lavender and the ones who wish they could. I've planted hidcote, munstead, de provence, and spanish and they all get about 2" tall and just sit there. I'm not giving up yet, though!

I have had no success at all starting them from seed, but I get wonderful plants at DeBaggio's in VA -- too bad he doesn't do mail order, but his catalog does have some great growing tips in it, so take a look at http://www.debaggioherbs.com/

hmmm... The pH here may just be too low. That's one of those things I have decided I'm not going to go to any lengths to amend. If it's not going to be happy here, it's best not to grow it. I mean, there are plenty of plants that are very happy here, you know? I'll give what I've got another couple of seasons, and if it won't grow, echinacea will! Thanks for the link, critter!

critter, I really envy you being close enough to DeBaggio's to go in person. (confession time...still haven't cut back my lavender)

Come on down... camp out in our guest room... we'll drive down to DeBaggio's together! :-)

I should've procrastinated on cutting back my lavender this year... I'm just so happy I didn't lose that hedge! I was sick just thinking about it! Yes, I know I could've replanted and had it back like that in a few years, but still...

oh, I know how you feel. you finally have success and get something the way you want/like it. if Mother Nature ruins something it makes you mad, but if you think you did something you'd be kicking yourself from here to tomorrow

I can still cut the old stuff out of the lavender, but it will be a job now because of all the new growth.

We'll see how the seed project goes. I got nothing from my w/s, so I've started some indoors. right now they're about 1/4", but I figure I've got all summer to make something of them. I don't care if they bloom this year. if it doesn't work out, nothing lost but a pack of seeds and a few gray hairs. or maybe a few brown hairs have been replaced by gray LOL

Ooh, very lovely! And those lavenders aren't overgrown, so they don't need a trim the way mine did. I saw some 'Munstead' and 'Hidcote' lavenders at a local nursery recently and passed on them, but your photos are making me have second thoughts! :-)

quick update...here's a list of what is now growing in C. Robin's herb garden

inside the heart:
basils (Red Rubin, Cinnamon, Magical Michael, Thai Siam Queen)
parsley (Italian flat-leaf, triple-curl)

in the flues:
mints (chocolate, pineapple, lavender, curly, lemon, gingermint)
oregano (Golden, Hopley's Purple, Showy Pink)
chives, garlic chives
annual flowers

in the ground:
garden sage
rue
thyme (orange, lemon, creeping 'Silver')
Florence fennel
German chamomile
nasturtium 'Princess of India'
dill
lavender

Wonderful!!

When you've had enough leaves for stir-fry, be sure to let the thai basil bloom... it's a pretty one!

I LOVE IT!!!

I really like the look of the chimney flues!

The chimney flues are great. there's so much you could do with them. I've planted some creeping thyme I started from seed behind the heart. I can see it's a place where weeds collect.