Final Touches on the Herb Garden

Demonstration Herb Garden August 2013

The Herb Garden installation is complete. Here are some of the highlights.

A new mailbox was installed with help from husbands Keith Collins and Tobias Kagan and Barb Petrucci’s beautiful painted canvas was attached.

Fence Features

The ten wood raised beds were constructed and installed by George Fries who also built the two fences at the ends of the garden.

Reclaimed and Refurbished Bench

After Carol Kagan and Barb Petrucci cleaned and repainted two found wrought iron bench frames, George also made and installed the wooden slats.

Passion Flower in Biblical Bed

Two wooden obelisks, donated by Billy Morningstar, are in the back corners.

Passion flower is vining up one alongside other herbs in the Biblical- themed bed which is flanked by a monastery and Roman-style bed (Jerry Lewis, coordinator).

 

 



Section of Culinary Bed

 

 

 

 

Hops are climbing the second one in the culinary bed which has many of the common cooking herbs as well as some more unusual ones (Sue McManus, coordinator).

 

 

 

 

The fragrance garden has a wrought iron obelisk, which Bill Stead and husband Ed Petrucci helped install. It has a climbing rose donated by Nancy Redington.  A variety of scented thymes and lavenders surround this centerpiece (Barb Petrucci, coordinator).

Fragrance Bed

The craft bed features a signpost with nightlight cap donated by Carol Kagan and installed by Tobias Kagan. Herbs used for dried crafts, potpourris and sachets as well as insect repellents are included (Carol Kagan, coordinator).

Craft Bed

A small wrought item post donated by Carol Kagan is in the dye bed which included some unusual plants such as black iris and woad in addition to other plants (Carol Kagan, coordinator).

Dye Bed

There is also a mint bed with a wide variety from mountain mint to Kentucky Colonel and pennyroyal (Jean Schlect, coordinator).

Section of the Mint Bed

Although we have mentioned many who have helped, volunteered and donated, there are many others who came out for work days and who donated time and plants. We thank everyone who helped create this beautiful garden.

Strawflowers in the craft bed

Morning hours find the benches in shade while afternoon they are in full sun. Pick your favorite time and come sit among the herbs.

Lavender - Golden Thyme - Lemon Thyme - Rosemary

See the progression of the rejuvenation of the herb garden:

Master Gardener Herb Garden: July to November 2012

Master Gardener Herb Garden: June 2013

Interested in herbs? Search for herbs and herbal topics on this blog.

 

Demonstration Herb Garden - June 2013

Craft Bed June 2013

The  Herb Garden is designed to be decorative and to demonstrate a variety of horticultural practices. It presents a mix of herbs for different uses in addition to those used in different cultures and historic eras.

What is an herb?
Plants used to flavor or season food are usually the first to come to mind. However, the  Herb Society of America defines an herb as a plant that is valued for flavor, fragrance, medicinal/health qualities, pesticide properties, coloring uses or commercial/industrial uses. Think about dried wreaths, potpourri, sachets, insect repellents, dyeing cloth, or herbs with antiseptic properties added to products such as mouthwash or toothpaste.


Layout for Herb Garden - Fall 2012

In mid-2012 Master Gardeners began to refurbish the existing herb garden and prepared a plan centered on raised beds with a variety of themes. The herb plants in the garden were removed, many of them saved and held over for use in the new garden. Raised beds were built, stained and installed. Manure and top soil was added in Fall 2012 and allowed to over winter.

Six themes were identified for various beds, each of which has been adopted by a current Master Gardener to design, choose and install plants. Additionally we wanted to highlight some interesting horticulture practices. As planting proceeded we identified four horticultural practices we wanted to highlight and would be easy for others to adopt – raised bed gardening, layering for propagation, container gardening for tender perennials and using oyster shells for mulching lavender.


Signs highlighting different horticultural practices

Barbara Petrucci has installed a beautiful climbing rose that will wind up a black wrought-iron obelisk (not yet installed) as well as a variety of lavenders – Hidcote, Munstead, Grosso, and fragrant thymes such as lavender, lemon and coconut. She has mulched the lavender with oyster shells (purchased as chicken feed/grit), a practice suggested by Evelyn Schoch and supported by Washington State Extension Service research.

Zephirine Drouhin Climbing Rose

Mints have a dedicated bed as a way to contain their spread and Jean Schlect has planted a wide variety to include: Kentucky Colonel mint, mountain mint, pennyroyal, bee balm, applemint, ginger mint and peppermint and more.

Bee Balm and Peppermint

The historical bed has been designed by Jerry Lewis to include three different eras – a Medieval/Monastery group, a Roman style group and a biblical themed group. Monastery herbs include angelica, fennel, oregano, violets, tansy and more.


Monastery Bed: Oregano & Violets

The biblical group has rosemary, horseradish, mustard, Lady’s bedstraw, passionflower and more. The passionflower is planted to climb up a large wooden obelisk. The Roman style group has dill, basil, costmary, winter savory and more.

(L) Roman Style bed- (R) Biblical bed: horseradish and lady's bedstraw

Carol Kagan has installed a variety of plants in the craft garden which includes herbs used for dried crafts and wreaths, potpourri scents/fixatives and sachets, insect repellents and flower arrangements. These include globe amaranth, celosia, artemisia, violets, scented geraniums, yarrow, scented thymes and more.


Celosia in Craft Bed

Both culinary and household plants are included in Sue McMorris’s beds. She has planted familiar herbs such as basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, parsley, chives and oregano but has also included many less familiar but interesting ones such as stevia – the sweet herb that is the basis of a line of new sugar-free sweetners, and lemon verbena, both tender perennials that need to be sheltered for the winter. She has also included pineapple sage, a daylily, salad burnet, hops that will climb a companion wooden obelisk.

Rosemary and Sweet Basil

The dye bed, designed and planted by Carol Kagan, has plants used in dyeing materials. Many of these are unusual such as woad, broom, dyer’s chamomile, false indigo and black irises while others are familiar but may not be known primarily for their dye qualities – yarrow, zinnia, marigolds and goldenrod.

Yarrow & woad plants are in the dye garden

The other beds have been filled with plants pulled from the holding area and extras from this year’s greenhouse seedlings. Look for nasturtiums, trailing and upright germander, thyme and caraway.

Other design features are wood-slat benches (rescued from the barn and redone), a bluebird house and a small nightlight.

For more information check these links

Links
Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education: Application of Oyster Shell Mulch
Biblical Herbs Blog

Herb Garden Workday

There were cars and trucks parked around the demo gardens Friday morning as Master Gardeners worked in the perennial, herb and Gass House gardens.

Herb Garden - April 2013

Planting, mulching and watering happened in the herb garden. Trailing germander (Teucrium Chamaedrys ‘Prostratum’) was pulled from the holding area and planted along the edge of one of the front beds. This is also known as the "poor man's boxwood” and is often seen at the edges in knot gardens or formal garden beds.



Trailing Germander

The Craft Garden

Sweet Annie (Artemisia annua)

Sweet Annie (Artemisia annua), used in making wreaths, potpourri and sachets, was planted. The leaves from mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), pulled from the pollinator garden on Monday, are an excellent insect repellent and can be added to sachets for linen or clothes closets.

Globe amaranth plants (Gomphrena haageana ‘Strawberry Fields’) were added. The red globe amaranth adds bright red to any wreath or dried crafts and can be used as visual additions to dry potpourris.

Globe Amaranth

The garden includes violets, used for dried flower crafts, and lemon thyme (Thymus citriodorus) used for potpourris.

Violet

Also added were both red and yellow yarrow (Achillea millefolium) used in wreaths, arrangements and potpourris.

Yarrow 'Paprika' (L) and Yarrow 'Schwellenberg' (R)

 

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)  is used for arrangements, wreaths and as a visual to dry potpourris. Presumed to be named after Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the flower resembles lace. Although the tiny red center flower is thought to be a blood droplet where Anne pricked herself making lace, it is actually a flower colored by anthocyanin which attracts insects.

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)

Other plants to be planted in the near future are baby’s breath (Gypsophilia), lavender cotton/santolina (Santolina chamaecyparissus), celosia, curry plant (Helichrysum italicum), scented geraniums, another scented thyme and Iris germanica var. florentina, also known as orris root, a fixative for scents in potpourris and cosmetics.



Curry Plant

The Dye Garden

This garden is a bit of a challenge as many of the plants are not commonly found in gardens. The binomials of some plants include “tinctor …” meaning to tint or dye. On order are madder (Rubia tinctorum), woad (Isatis tinctoria), dyer’s chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria) and indigo (Indigofera tinctoria). Only a goldenrod (Solidago spp.), claimed from the pollinator garden, has been planted so far.  Also planned are yarrow (Achillea), zinnias (Zinnia spp.), marigolds (Targetes spp.), saffron crocus (Crocus sativa) and a centerpiece plant, dyer’s broom (Genista tinctoria).




Dyer's Broom

Stay tuned for more on the herb garden as the weather turns warmer and the seedlings from the greenhouse can be moved to the various beds.