We’ve moved house. Aside from adapting to a new place and new people, I’m adapting to new land, new trees, new plants, and … a blank-ish slate. The people that lived here before weren’t gardeners, so aside from some unhappy grass and some mature perennial plantings that include hydrangeas (it being the cape and all), it’s a brand new start.
Since it’s seed catalog time and it’s too cold to be outside in the garden, my obvious move is to start planning the kitchen garden. Oh, yeah! Culinary and medicinal herbs, flowers and vegetables.
There were some key things about the herb garden at the farm:
- I could walk barefoot out my kitchen door on a stone walkway to cut herbs for dinner. Pure bliss.
- It faced east, which meant it got great morning sun and much of the garden didn’t bake in the late afternoon summer sun. The bits that did get that sun where home to things like chamomile, lavender, verbena, hyssop, zinnia, monarda, yarrow … plant spirits that were happy with that setting.
- There was a window from the kitchen onto the garden, so I had a good view of butterflies, hummingbirds, yellow finches, dragon flies, and other gorgeous pollinators and birds that hung out in the garden
There’s nothing like looking out the window and being confronted by a humming bird staring back at you or a praying mantis perched on the window frame. It’s like living in a charmed movie.
So I’m choosing a spot next to the back yard slider from the kitchen area. An east facing area isn’t available without removing trees, so I’ll have to make a spot that’s south west of the kitchen work, and I’ll ask our carpenter, Norm, to make stairs on that side of the deck so that I can walk directly to the garden … barefoot!
Other things to prep – the soil here is full of clay and sand, which will mean compost, and lots of it, some stepping stones from a local landscape store, and a clear calendar starting in April.
This year I planted garlic in October in a bed I threw together hastily just to the south of where the herb garden is going to be, so I will design the gardens and their contents over coming weeks … more to come as the plan and the work evolve!
