“The heart is like a garden: it can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?
~ Jack Kornfield
Our lovely Persis has been working in the courtyard over the past few weeks and it is looking just gorgeous. So, we will have a few posts where Persis will tell us about various sections of the garden and give us some inside info on what’s going on. Today we will be focused on our new herb garden...
Can you talk us through the different types of herbs here?
Sure, here in this trough I've planted three plants [from left]:
we’ve got a variegated Foxley Thyme (Thymus pulegioides) which is amazing;
a Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia Munstead) for Beauty and the Bees; and then we have a Sage (Salvia officinalis).
Here is my Bay Tree (Laurus nobilis) which I recently discovered doesn’t like being in a wind tunnel so I’m pondering where to move it to. Bay is one of my favourite herbs, I love it's woody, spicy, slightly floral smell.
This is Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) which is slightly acid, lemony flavour . You can put the young leaves in a salad or you can cook it if you have got loads of it. It is also just very very beautiful.
And this is is some Mint (Mentha) which I have transplanted from the herb spiral, so I’m hoping this will take:
We had built a herb spiral over here which hasn't worked so well because of the placement, it doesn’t have enough sun. We are changing that and growing the sun loving herbs in containers over there in a sunnier spot. So partly the idea is to be growing some herbs that we will be able to harvest for food, and they also all have flowers that the pollinators love. I'm planning to make some softwood cuttings from the overgrown rosemary soon, to establish new plants. And Tom, our amazing cook has suggested parsley, mint and coriander may thrive in the herb spiral along with the lemon balm which is very happy there, as they all grow well in shadier spots.
Where did you purchase these herbs from?
These new herb plants came from a company called Superb Herbs who are just over the river. They deliver locally by foot and cycle. It's great to be supporting a local business and great for reducing traffic emissions. These came as young plants, ready to plant out.
Can you tell us a bit about the soil, watering, sunlight and other elements that will be helpful for these new plants?
This compost I got from Walworth Garden which is where I have been studying horticulture. It is organic and peat free so it’s mostly based on coir which is coconut. So it’s a good quality multi-purpose peat free compost. With these I watered with rainwater from the tubs up there.
*Peat:
"A brown deposit resembling soil, formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter in the wet acidic conditions of bogs and fens, and often cut out and dried for use as fuel and in gardening."
Do you have a favourite flower or plants?
I always like the ones that are just opening, whatever it is…
Keep an eye out for more posts on KSD's Garden in Spring!