Create a Scent Garden

Aromatic garden plants is the best benefit of an herb garden.  And you can grow an herb garden just for this purpose, never planning to harvest anything, but rather to sit and enjoy the glorious smells.

Karen Creel of GardenChick.com, gave a great list of aroatic plants in an article in The Essential Herbal Magazine.  That article got me thinking about a theme garden based on this idea.  Rather than worrying about what to do with this or that plant, just grow a garden that asks you to rest, take a seat with a good book, and enjoy the fragrance.

alternative garden - scented container with oregano, lavender, catmint, aromatic mint, geranium (in the back), rosemary, mini petunia 

What is Needed

You always need six hours of direct sunlight for an herbs garden, as well as well-drained soil that you amend with rich compost to give the herbs what they need to get lush and fragrant.  Always choose plants for your hardiness zone.  A smaller number can do well, but larger number zones will struggle in cooler weather or harsh winters.  Always plant taller varieties in the back and give the plants proper space to get larger over time.  Place the invasive plants, like lemon balm, mints or woodruff in a container to stop the spread.

Design Ideas

The Border

Create a deep border (8–12 ft deep) along a fence, path, or lawn edge.

Back Layer (Tall Structure)

• Climbing rose
• 
  Lilac
• Bee Balm
• Pineapple sage
• Lemon verbena

Middle Layer (Color + Fragrance)

• Lavender
• Calendula
• Scented geraniums
  
• Lemon balm
• Chamomile
• Catmint

Front Edge (Touch & Scent Zone)

• Corsican mint
• Sweet woodruff
• Lemon thyme
• Chocolate mint
• Spearmint (contained!)
  

The Circle Garden

Divide garden into four beds around a center feature (bench, sundial, birdbath).

Center Feature

• Rosemary shrub or lavender mound

Bed 1 — Mediterranean Herbs

• Rosemary
• Lavender
• Lemon thyme
• Curry leaf (container if needed)

Bed 2 — Tea & Lemon Garden

• Lemon balm
• Lemon verbena
• Chamomile
• Sweet cicely

Bed 3 — Mint Collection

• Chocolate mint
• Spearmint
• Corsican mint
  (sink pots to control spread)

Bed 4 — Flowering Pollinator Herbs

• Bee balm
• Calendula
• Catmint
• Pineapple sage
  

The Wandering Path

Create a curving walking path with herbs brushed as people pass.

Along Path Edges

• Corsican mint
• Sweet woodruff
• Lemon thyme

Waist Height

• Scented geraniums
• Lavender
• Catmint
• Chamomile

Fragrance Stations

• Chocolate mint corner
• Lemon garden (lemon balm + verbena)
• Pineapple sage surprise scent

Vertical Moments

• Climbing rose archway
• Lilac anchor shrub

Plant List

Here is a list of fragrant herbs to include in your plans:

• Bee Balm
• Cinnamon basil
• Calendula
• Chamomile
• Chocolate Mint
• Catmint
• Corsican mint
• Curry leaf
• Lavender
• Lemon balm
• Lemon thyme
• Lemon Verbena
• Lemon Balm
• Lilac
• Patchouli
• Pineapple sage
• Rose, climbing
• Rosemary
• Scented geraniums
• Spearmint
• Sweet Cicely 
• Sweet woodruff

Winter Garden Planning part 1

I have decided to spend some time in the next few weeks talking about Garden Planning. I am going to start with why you want to do it now and then how to do it over the next few weeks.  I will show you how and why to keep a garden journal and how to read a seed catalog and more. 

No space—inside or out—should be designed until you figure out what you absolutely have to have and what you'd like to have if budget, time, and space were not limits. The same is true with your landscape: Create a list and design your own backyard, figuring out how much of your landscape should be devoted to each item. Do you gather often with family? Then a large dining and entertaining space might serve you well. Are flowers your thing? Do you crave space to grow your own food? Then a mix of flower and vegetable beds might be a good solution.

For those who mourn the slowing down of the gardening season, here’s some good news: Plants may go dormant in winter, but people don’t have to. With fewer attention-grabbing chores, winter is the perfect time to revisit existing designs and reconsider plant palettes. Certain landscaping projects are actually better suited to the off months and there are definite advantages to getting an early start in winter.

ADVANTAGES TO PLANNING IN WINTER

Here is the back and front yards respectively so I can see the space, the vista, and get a feel for the perennial plants already in my landscape.  We took down a tree this winter, so I was also looking at the kind of sun the yard will now get.

See clearly:

The bones of the garden are exposed in winter, allowing you to easily see what’s out of balance and where you might want to add in structure or visual texture, whether in the form of plants or hardscaping. Sightlines are also exposed when plants and trees have lost their leaves. One can see which sightlines to keep clear, which views to incorporate or borrow, and which ones to block.

Beat the rush:

Get orders started for long lead-time items, such as outdoor kitchen appliances or specialty plants. Don’t let long delivery times in spring push your project off track; order early and keep your project running on time.

Read up:

Cold winter days are the perfect time to catch up on gardening and design books and magazines. There are so many sources for new ideas, but one of my favorites is the Instagram and websites of seed companies. They have gotten very good and giving context for the plants they sell, not just pretty plant pictures to make you drool.

My new flower choices and repeat loved herbs have already arrived!

Catch up:

Get caught up on all the latest trends in garden design. Get inspired to try something new—add edible plants to your landscape, make your garden more sustainable, design a garden getaway—whatever catches your eye.

I suggest these great websites for ideas:

https://www.provenwinners.com/container-gardening/ideabooks

https://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-ideas/advice/g746/garden-plans/

https://www.plantedwell.com/gardening-designs/

And if you want to see previous Garden design posts I've written, here is a search of them all:

Backyard Patch Herbal Blog: Search results for garden planning

So next time I will talk about prepping your garden journal and ordering your seeds.  If this year matches last year with the number of gardeners increasing, you will want to order your seed sooner than later!

LaSalle County Historical Society and Illinois Valley Herb Guild Garden - National Garden Month

It is rare to find a public garden that is only there to be an herb garden. I find one every now and then but most gardens we visit have herb gardens as part of a larger garden, rather than the main focus of the experience.  The garden I am focusing on today is just an herb garden.  It focuses on many useful aspects of herbs but it is only an herb garden.

taken March 2015, the garden is still asleep

Located near the one room school house of the LaSalle County (Illinois)Historical Society I have visited this garden many times starting in 2015.  I took photos of it when it was still dormant and cold in March, another time in June during early growth in a rain storm and finally in 2016 when it was the end of the season in October.

This garden is maintained by volunteers so sometimes when I visit it is overgrown and untrimmed, but it is obviously well cared for by the Illinois Valley Herb Guild. 

taken 6-25-15

The Guilds’ herb garden is planted in a traditional homesteading style in four beds defined by the major uses for which the plants were grown in the 1800s. Dyes, Culinary, Medicine and Fragrance are the themes used in the garden.  I like the four-square design and plants included.  I think all the plants used in the garden have roots in the 1800s, but I think not all would be found on the 'frontier.'  But I am not certain what definition of frontier they are using, so I could be wrong. 

Since this garden is only about 12 by 24 feet, constructed with a center X path dividing the plot into 4 rectangular beds.  There is no need for a tour, so instead I thought I would show some of the variety of plants they have in the garden.  

Taken 10-28-16 

This garden was planted probably around 2010 and as a result has some age and many of the plants have reached some spread and have taken hold in their locations and flourished.  It is a joy to walk through and see the plants and touch the scented leaves.  A booklet was published detailing many of the plants in the garden back in 2011 and you can get it from the LaSalle County Historical Society in Utica, Illinois.

I love the groupings and the way the plants are labeled.  I think someone made the labels by hand.

There were several plants I had never grown before in the beds which allowed me to see the mature look of the plant as you rarely can in a nursery setting.  Lady's Bed Straw and Germander are historically interesting plants and to see them in a garden bed was a joy, especially since I have never grown them myself..

Flowering Lady's Bed Straw in June

Lady's Bed Straw is named so because it is thought to be the plant used in the Manger for the Baby Jesus. In the Galium family it is a cousin of Sweet Woodruff, and is another European introduced plant that grows well in Northern Illinois. When in flower they are highly fragrant and hold their scent while dry.  There is a chemical in Lay's Bed Straw that will curdle milk causing it to be used as an ingredient in the making of cheese.  The flowers can be used for making yellow dye and was used to color butter.  It is an all purpose herb which is perfect for a frontier garden.

Germander just getting serious in June.

Germander is used these days as a scented ornamental wreath plant, but traditionally it was used as a treatment for gout.  It is an Mediterranean plant and would have been brought to the US by European settlers. This is probably the creeping versus upright variety due to the short stature and it works as a lawn substitute and grows well in shade and with drought conditions.  I am thinking of adding it to my side yard which is both shaded and dry.  It flowers purple in summer.

Flowering from June to frost, this was enjoying the summer when I snapped this photo

Thread leaf tickseed was popular in 19th century ornamental gardens, but although you can use it as a dye in certain circumstances I think it was less a frontier herb as a landscape plant in more urban areas, especially along the east coast in the 1900s.  I love to grow this, but it is a serious self-seeder, so I put it in pots rather than in the ground to keep the seeds contained.

Clary Sage

I got the best picture of Clary Sage I have ever taken while at this garden.  Even the one in my own garden never looked as nice as this one. Clary Sage is an old plant.  Used by the Quakers in PA, it is a perfect frontier plant.  The aromatherapy benefits include reduction of stress and anxiety.  It is also an anti-inflammatory herb and an antibacterial.

Winter Savory in flower in June

Winter Savory is always a good edge plant and this garden placed on the edge.  I suspect someone came by and trimmed it up shortly after I took this photo.  Winter savory takes on a nice shape if kept trimmed.  And being a perennial it only gets better with time.

St John's Wort flowers look bright even on a cloudy rainy day.

This plant flowers around the Summer solstice in June, (near St. John's Day on the 24th) which is how it gets the name St. John's Wort.  The flowers make a great herbal tincture that is red in color rather than yellow as the flowers might suggest.  The infused alcohol can then be used to treat various ailments, including anxiety and depression.   Historically it was believed to be a panacea that could cure almost anything.

Sorrel going strong in October

French Sorrel is an herb I have never grown.  Considered one of the bitter herbs, it was used by the Egyptians and the Romans to impart a bitterness or acidity to foods, much like we do with lemon juice today.  It can be eaten as a green, with a taste similar to a sour green apple it is in nice counter part to other sweeter foods. 

Flax in October, not tall enough to harvest

Flax is also part of the garden, but my guess is this plant would not have been in the garden as much as it would have been in a field nearby.  Flax was grown extensively in Illinois as a crop for making linen fabric.  To process flax you need a good flowing water source.  This garden is right along a canal which makes it a great place to grow flax but more abundance would give you the flax you needed to weave into cloth.  The process for making fiber from flax to create linen is very harsh and hard on people and the environment, so once cotton was more easily available Flax was abandoned as a cash crop.

taken 10-26-16

After my second visit we stopped in the nearby museum and I picked up a little booklet called "The LaSalle County Historical Society's Settler's Herb Garden" which details photographically many of the plants in the garden with a short one or two sentence description of the use of the plant.  The only thing the book is missing is a bit of information on why they chose the plants they did for the garden, as I am curious.

This garden is near Seneca, Illinois, where my husband and I intend to retire and raise herbs in the next few years, so I will be visiting this garden again, and I recommend you do as well if you are ever along the I&M canal or the Illinois River near Starved Rock.  The address of the museum is 101 E Canal Street, North Utica, Illinois and the garden is east of the parking area beside the one-room school house building.

Cottage Garden Plans

We discussed the things to consider with a Cottage Garden design back on March 5.  Now we have the plants for you.

The earliest cottage gardens were more practical than their modern descendants with an emphasis on vegetables and herbs, along with some fruit trees, perhaps a beehive, and even livestock. Flowers were used to fill any spaces in between. Over time, flowers became more dominant. The traditional cottage garden was usually enclosed, perhaps with a rose-bowered gateway. Flowers common to early cottage gardens included hollyhocks, pansies and delphinium, all three essentially 19th-century flowers. Others were the old-fashioned roses that bloomed once a year with rich scents, simple flowers like daisies, and flowering herbs. A well-tended topiary of traditional form, perhaps a cone-shape in tiers, or a conventionalized peacock, would be part of the repertory, to which the leisured creators of "cottage gardens" would add a sun-dial, crazy paving on paths with thyme interspersed, and a rustic seat, generally missing in the earlier cottage gardens.

Cottage Garden border

When designing a cottage garden whether as an entire front or back yard or just as a border or entrance, you can use fences, walls and other things as a focal point and build your cottage style around that.

The Plans

This plan uses a house as the background and a walkway as the front border, then the plants are placed cottage-style between the two items.

Herbs, flowering perennials and a focal point of a bird bath complete the design.  You can use a sundial or piece of sculpture instead of  a bird bath, but you want something permanent as your focal point.

For this design I used a mixture of plants, not all of them herbs to give color and texture.

A = Lady's Mantle
B = red flowering Verbena (might need 2 plants)
C =  Black eye susan (3 plants)
D = Day lily (yellow or orange)
E = Russian Sage
F = Hyssop
G = Yarrow, yellow or red
H = Lemon Basil (for the contrast)
I = Purple Ruffled Basil (3 plants and cut frequently to make them bushy)
J = Golden Oregano (Origanium vulgarus 'Aureum')
K = Smokebush (Cothus coggygria 'Royal Purple)
L = Comfrey 
M = Lungwort
N = Gialnt Allium (Allium giganteum)
O = Lavender (6 plants is perfect)
P = Japanese Spirea (Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’)
Q = Sedum 'Autumn Joy' or sprinkle in Nasturtium Seed
R = Winter savory  shaped to a ball shrub

S = White Yarrow

T = Tarragon as a back drop the colorful flowers or you can put in a shrub with large foliage
U = Jewel Blend Nasturtium (the orange and cream flowers will anchor the corner.)

The second plan uses a fence as a center point.  You can place this along the front of your property or the back or even the side.  The fence becomes the anchor and you plant herbs and flowers and even vegetables on both sides of the fence.

A= Dwarf purple Basil (used as a border plant)
B= White yarrow (or if you do not have children Tansy)
C= Iris, Siberian (purple or yellow)
D=  Pine apple Sage (can be in containers)
E= Anise Hyssop
F= Pineapple Mint
G= Nasturtiums (use a traditional mix with red flowers)
H= Lavender (might try white for contrast)
I= Foxglove
J= Parsley, curly (used as a border plant)

I grow Yellow Flag Iris, because the root can be used as a fixative in potpourri.

Stop back in a few days and we will delve into Four Square Gardening.

Designing Gardens - Cottage Garden

Every spring I start planning my gardens, both real and imaginary.  It helps get me through those last deary weeks of winter and this year they are indeed a bit dreary.   With the temps barely escaping Zero degrees it is hard to think Spring will every come this year.

I thought I would start the design series this year with a cottage garden.  These are not fancy, some see them as almost wild, but they do have a plan.  I will give several plans over a couple of days so check back for several cottage garden ideas.

SW Indiana Master Gardeners cottage garden

Cottage Gardens are a mixture of shrubs, perennials, herbs, flowering annuals and ground covers.  Along with the mixture of plants is the quaint garden ornaments of gates, fountains, bird baths, sundials or sculpture.  A cottage garden is an oasis of plants and the animals and insects they attract.

Here are a couple of shots of a sample cottage garden taken at the Home and Garden Show in Chicago back in 2012.

The cottage garden is a distinct style of garden that uses an informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants.

English in origin, the cottage garden depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Homely and functional gardens connected to working-class cottages go back several centuries, but their reinvention in stylized versions grew in 1870s England, in reaction to the more structured and rigorously maintained English estate gardens that used formal designs and mass plantings of brilliant greenhouse annuals.

The earliest cottage gardens were more practical than their modern descendants with an emphasis on vegetables and herbs, along with some fruit trees, perhaps a beehive, and even livestock. Flowers were used to fill any spaces in between. Over time, flowers became more dominant.

The traditional cottage garden was usually enclosed, perhaps with a rose-bowered gate. Flowers common to early cottage gardens included hollyhocks, pansies and delphinium, all three essentially 19th-century flowers. Others were the old-fashioned roses that bloomed once a year with rich scents, simple flowers like daisies, and flowering herbs. As time passed they became more elaborate with a  well-tended topiary of traditional form, perhaps a cone-shape in tiers, or an abstract animal shape.  The gardener would also add a sun-dial, crazy paving on paths with thyme in-between the stones, and a rustic seat, generally missing in the earlier cottage gardens.

Thyme between stones in the Rotary Garden In Wisconsin

Modern-day cottage gardens include countless regional and personal variations of the more traditional English cottage garden, and embrace plant materials, such as ornamental grasses or native plants, that were never seen in the rural gardens of cottagers. Informal climbing plants, whether traditional or modern hybrids, are also a common cottage garden plant. Self-sowing annuals and freely spreading perennials continue to find a place in the modern cottage garden, just as they did in the traditional cottager's garden.

THE PLANS

A cottage garden says, Come in. Wander. Stay awhile. It's freewheeling, not formal; generous, not stingy. Its abundance may be what you notice first: Vines clamber up porch posts, roses twine across arbors, flowers overflow their beds in the company of herbs and other edibles.

In the next week we will post a couple cottage garden plans.

The bonus for reading to the end of the blog is this link to Landreth Seeds.  One of the oldest seed companies in the U.S. they were instrumental in introducing many varieties of plants to American growers.  Most notably Nasturtiums.

Nasturtiums had become essential to the English Cottage Garden and therefore to the American garden. Both the trailing and the low growing varieties were known, but it was the trailing variety that was the most popular. In the late 1890’s, the Landreths introduced a product designed to appeal to their female customers. They called the product ‘Landreths’ Bon-Bon Boxes’. The ‘Bon-Bon’ boxes were decorated with stunning lithographic illustrations and filled with either 25 packets of Sweet Peas, 25 packets of assorted flower seeds or 14 packets of named variety Nasturtiums.  You can still get a nice variety of Nasturtiums from Landreth Seeds