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GARDEN 15 |
The Herb Garden
The new rose bed leads into a small, sunken, herb garden, where a mixture of culinary, medicinal and strewing herbs do their best to escape the confines of their allotted spaces. There are really two gardens in one here, as the garden is bounded on one side by a tall yew hedge which separates it from the formal garden and which has a small rockery at its base. The term rockery is used loosely here as it is more a thin strip of soil with some rocks placed in it. Centrepiece here is a large, Greek, olive-oil jar, almost out-classed by a huge, lead, water tank dated 1788 which nestles in the shade of a venerable, old, fig tree.
(L) Erodium "Penelope" flowers for the entire summer.(C) Only opening fully in full sun, Mt. Atlas Daisy has beautiful red reverses to its petals. (R) Anemone Pulsatilla or Pasque flower, although not a true herb, is imbued with religious significance as it always flowers at Easter.
(L) A rich source of much needed, early nectar, a ten-year old, prostrate rosemary, tumbles down from the rockery. (C) Helianthemum "Henfield Brilliant" lights up this part of the garden in early summer. (R) Another rockery gem, Phlox Douglasii.
(L) Tansy is a rampant thug and has to be ruthlessly divided if it is not to take over the entire border (R) Planted up with saxifrage and house leeks, a lead water tank is the perfect foil for ornamental onions.
Tulip "Lilac wonder".
As herbs are mainly grown for their aromatic foliage and could not, for the most part, be regarded as eye-catching, I have used a bit of artistic licence in these borders and included spring bulbs and herbaceous plants to brighten up the beds and extend the season at both ends. Luckily, most of the herbs that are grown here are evergreen, so structure and winter interest can be maintained. In high summer the thuggish, yellow flowered, tansy does its best to smother its neighbours and has to be ruthlessly culled to keep it in bounds. It meets stiff opposition from the equally vigourous and invasive lemon balm and St. John's wort. Marsh mallow survives despite the droughts of high summer and alecost and verbena compete for space with salad burnet and red orach. Other rampant herbs like the mint family are confined to pots to curb their enthusiasm and at the other extreme, tender herbs such as French Tarragon and French Lavender are also kept in pots so that they can be moved to safety when winter frosts arrive.
In a bad year, flooding can be as great as six feet deep, reaching the herb garden (above) and causing serious problems for plants more used to Mediterranean conditions. The clipped santolina hedges around the beds died out completely following one such episode in 1998.