Some of my favorite days are spent when it is raining and dingy and I turn on all the lights in my workroom and drag out my favorite garden planning books and start to design gardens. Sometimes they are gardens for my home, sometimes they are gardens for my patio and sometimes they are gardens for some imaginary house I will own with limitless garden space and someone else who will weed it.
In the process of these imaginings I have come up with several great, reproducible ideas for gardens that I thought I could share. These may help you with ideas for your own space so do not be afraid to borrow all the ideas you can use.
As will my Cottage Garden Plans there will be several different plans presented over several days so you can see the variety this style provides. Unlike a Cottage Garden, a Four Square Garden is an organized and symmetrical plan.
FOUR SQUARE
My husband and I believe the perfect home will be a four square style bungalow and we have been searching for one for years without much success. However, in sympathy to this I created a garden space consisting of four even squares joined at the center with a decoration. Although some days that center changes from a pain path into an elaborate container structure or a three dimensional abstract sculpture. Each of the Squares is its own individual theme garden. I like this design because I could call it my "Backyard Patches."
The squares each measure 9 feet by 9 feet this allows for easy reaching for 3 feet in from each side. I run a path diagonally through each square to give access the to center spaces. In one design of this garden I made a each square a different use for the herbs: Bath herbs, Tea herbs, Culinary herbs and Medicinal herbs.
Although many herbs cross over from one category to the other I was still able to fill each space with unique herbs. And I could choose more unusual medicinal or tea herbs when the basic herbs seemed to end up in the culinary patch. Here were the plants by section:
Culinary Tea
Mustard bergamot
Cilantro lemon balm
Dill lemon grass
Nasturtiums lemon verbena
Fennel anise hyssop
Chives chamomile
Marjoram hyssop
Oregano mints
Parsley scented geraniums
Savory catnip
Tarragon Meadowsweet
Thyme marigold, scented
caraway
lovage
Bath Medicinal
Comfrey comfrey
Chickweed feverfew
Nettles penny royal
Lavender sage
Rosemary southernwood
Sage thyme
Marjoram borage
Chamomile valerian
Roses betony
Aloe marsh mallow
Witch hazel sage
Lady’s mantle ginger
Peppermint St. John’s Wort
Lemon balm Echinacea
Calendula primrose
Clary sage catnip
Thyme eyebright
Yarrow sweet cicely
The numbers match the layout in the photo above.
Another Four Square pattern I crafted was the single plant version. This one has smaller squares within the squares each one containing multiple varieties of a single species, like Basil, Mint, Lemon, and Thyme (I'll use any excuse to plant a variety of thyme species.)
Here is the Plant arrangement list for the drawing above:
Lemon Herbs
Lemon basil
Sorrel
Lemon balm
Lemon thyme
Bergamot
Basils
tulsi basil (holy)
sweet basil spicy globe basil
purple basil
purple ruffled basil
lemon basil
lime basil
basil genovese
Garlic and Onion
onion chives
garlic chives
shallots
Sages
Common sage
Bergarten Sage
tri-color sage
purple sage
golden sage
pineapple sage (focal)
mint
Thyme varieties
lemon thyme
common thyme
silver thyme
golden thyme
wedgewood thyme
french thyme
english thyme
Mints
peppermint
spearmint
apple mint
variegated apple mint
pennyroyal
pineapple mint
curly mint
Corsican mint
Flowering Herbs
Although most herbs flower, as a dedicated herb grower I usually clip the flower heads off as soon as they arrive, but there are some herbs that you actually grow for the flowers.
Scented Marigold
Mexican mint marigold
bergamot
calendula (Pot marigod)
pineapple sage
Hyssop and anise hyssop
My favorite by far and the one that took me the most time to complete a design for was a color four square garden. This one was designed with four complimentary colors and a color matching path. Rather than put a path down the middle of of each square I made the squares only 6 by 6 feet so you could reach all the plants from the outside path. Notice However that the colors were not placed in squares but in triangles to get the most attractive contrast when viewed from a distance or from above.
Silver
Peruvian sage
common sage
Bergarten sage
lavender
silver thyme / wedgewood thyme
Dark green to purple
peppermint
winter savory
purple sage
purple basil
Bright green
lemon balm
lemon basil
pineapple mint
lemon grass
variegated thyme
variegated mint
Golden
golden sage
golden thyme
calendula
lemon scented marigolds
With this garden I also planned a center diamond to accent the colors with a tiered raised bed
the bottom tier was dark green with rosemary and creeping thyme, the second tier silver with dusty miller and the third tier was purple and green with purple ruffled basil and red flowering thyme
 |
| Four Square Garden in Williamsburg |
As will my Cottage Garden Plans there will be several different plans presented over several days so you can see the variety this style provides. Unlike a Cottage Garden, a Four Square Garden is an organized and symmetrical plan.
 |
| This Four Square garden is in Ohio |
My husband and I believe the perfect home will be a four square style bungalow and we have been searching for one for years without much success. However, in sympathy to this I created a garden space consisting of four even squares joined at the center with a decoration. Although some days that center changes from a pain path into an elaborate container structure or a three dimensional abstract sculpture. Each of the Squares is its own individual theme garden. I like this design because I could call it my "Backyard Patches."
The squares each measure 9 feet by 9 feet this allows for easy reaching for 3 feet in from each side. I run a path diagonally through each square to give access the to center spaces. In one design of this garden I made a each square a different use for the herbs: Bath herbs, Tea herbs, Culinary herbs and Medicinal herbs.
Although many herbs cross over from one category to the other I was still able to fill each space with unique herbs. And I could choose more unusual medicinal or tea herbs when the basic herbs seemed to end up in the culinary patch. Here were the plants by section:
Culinary Tea
Mustard bergamot
Cilantro lemon balm
Dill lemon grass
Nasturtiums lemon verbena
Fennel anise hyssop
Chives chamomile
Marjoram hyssop
Oregano mints
Parsley scented geraniums
Savory catnip
Tarragon Meadowsweet
Thyme marigold, scented
caraway
lovage
Bath Medicinal
Comfrey comfrey
Chickweed feverfew
Nettles penny royal
Lavender sage
Rosemary southernwood
Sage thyme
Marjoram borage
Chamomile valerian
Roses betony
Aloe marsh mallow
Witch hazel sage
Lady’s mantle ginger
Peppermint St. John’s Wort
Lemon balm Echinacea
Calendula primrose
Clary sage catnip
Thyme eyebright
Yarrow sweet cicely
The numbers match the layout in the photo above.
Another Four Square pattern I crafted was the single plant version. This one has smaller squares within the squares each one containing multiple varieties of a single species, like Basil, Mint, Lemon, and Thyme (I'll use any excuse to plant a variety of thyme species.)
Here is the Plant arrangement list for the drawing above:
Lemon Herbs
Lemon basil
Sorrel
Lemon balm
Lemon thyme
Bergamot
Basils
tulsi basil (holy)
sweet basil spicy globe basil
purple basil
purple ruffled basil
lemon basil
lime basil
basil genovese
Garlic and Onion
onion chives
garlic chives
shallots
Sages
Common sage
Bergarten Sage
tri-color sage
purple sage
golden sage
pineapple sage (focal)
mint
Thyme varieties
lemon thyme
common thyme
silver thyme
golden thyme
wedgewood thyme
french thyme
english thyme
Mints
peppermint
spearmint
apple mint
variegated apple mint
pennyroyal
pineapple mint
curly mint
Corsican mint
Flowering Herbs
Although most herbs flower, as a dedicated herb grower I usually clip the flower heads off as soon as they arrive, but there are some herbs that you actually grow for the flowers.
Scented Marigold
Mexican mint marigold
bergamot
calendula (Pot marigod)
pineapple sage
Hyssop and anise hyssop
My favorite by far and the one that took me the most time to complete a design for was a color four square garden. This one was designed with four complimentary colors and a color matching path. Rather than put a path down the middle of of each square I made the squares only 6 by 6 feet so you could reach all the plants from the outside path. Notice However that the colors were not placed in squares but in triangles to get the most attractive contrast when viewed from a distance or from above.
Silver
Peruvian sage
common sage
Bergarten sage
lavender
silver thyme / wedgewood thyme
Dark green to purple
peppermint
winter savory
purple sage
purple basil
Bright green
lemon balm
lemon basil
pineapple mint
lemon grass
variegated thyme
variegated mint
Golden
golden sage
golden thyme
calendula
lemon scented marigolds
With this garden I also planned a center diamond to accent the colors with a tiered raised bed
the bottom tier was dark green with rosemary and creeping thyme, the second tier silver with dusty miller and the third tier was purple and green with purple ruffled basil and red flowering thyme
For the mints, I would add chocolate mint!
ReplyDelete