I'll buy a Parsley plant again, and probably put it in the same spot. It did really well there, even though it's kind of dappled shade. I clearly only need one.
I also have those great Chives. I was really happily surprised to see them start to grow back last spring. I might move them around. I might even try to divide one of them. I think that's how they're supposed to be propagated.
Of course, there are lots of other herbs I might try to grow- Oregano, Sage, Mint, Rosemary, Lemon Balm, real Thyme. Mint of course needs to be in a container, and so does Lemon Balm. I don't know if I care about growing Lemon Balm, but Mike McGrath makes it sound so nice, and it repels mosquitoes, and you can bring it inside over the winter to make you happy, and it's a perennial (zone 4!), and it's easy care and all that.
Ok, fine. So I'm getting Mint and Lemon Balm.
I also really want Rosemary again. I wish I had brought it inside last fall to try to carry it over and keep a nice, big rosemary going strong, but I left it for dead. Well, I'll try again this year, why not. I love Rosemary and I use it all the time. The Oregano... I don't know, man, I don't use fresh Oregano all that much. It does claim to be hardy to Zone 5.
I think it you want to have a truly perennial herb garden, you need to plant these things in the ground. Well... the Rosemary has to be in a container so I can bring it inside. Mint and Lemon Balm can't be grown in the ground because they will take over the world. The Chives are doing just fine in the raised bed. That would leave Oregano, Sage, and Thyme. Ok, I have never cooked with Sage. I mean, I don't dislike it, but what's the point of it, in food? It doesn't really get me excited. It can be really pretty... When I've tried to grow Thyme in the raised bed, it gets completely overshadowed. So I thought I might have to use it as edging in the flat perennial beds, or grow it in a container.
So what's the plan?
- Don't grow Oregano if you don't like Oregano. It's a big ass plant, don't waste the space.
- Grow Rosemary, Mint and Lemon Balm in containers (separate ones)
- Get some Thyme and grow it in the ground, or in a container.
- If you want to grow Sage, fine, whatever.
I'm thinking, maybe when I build my Gutter Garden, the top rung can be an herb garden? Small nice things like Thyme, Sage, maybe the Cilantro and Chives... I'm thinking it will be nice because they're so accessible.
Other than that, what's going into that thing in the summer? In the spring, it's going to be all lettuces. And it's going to look beautiful. I might throw in some pansies too. In the summer, I was thinking I'd have like, a wall of Nasturtiums. I also ordered those Strawberries from Burpee. I forgot about those, that order arrived but I guess they'll ship the Strawberries later. They get transplanted in April, I guess after the last frost date. You get 25 bare root plants... that's kind of a lot, actually. I only have 20 linear feet. So, no problem, I'll put them about a foot apart, 8 in each row, and plant Nasturtiums in between.
So does that mean I can't plant herbs in there? That's correct. Just put them somewhere else, come on. So about the strawberries- I bought these weird pink Nasturtiums, because I was thinking about the patio, and how I want to grow Begonias in the new raised bed inside the patio, and those are usually pink. The ones I grew last year definitely were. And I'd have the Coleus in there, and maybe some Caladiums, and some New Guinea Impatiens, and it would be a lot of pink. Is it going to look stupid to have these pink-purple Nasturtium flowers next to red strawberries? Eh, probably not.
So what else is going in the actual raised bed? I'm going to have at least one tomato, but maybe 2? And I will be growing Pole Beans, but I'm not yet sure where. I want to grow the Morning Glories on the outside patio wall, because I think the people who walk past it every morning would rather see flowers than beans. And I don't really like being crouched down in the middle of the sidewalk picking beans when people are walking by and I'm in their way being awkward. Basically I'm pretty sure I don't want to put the beans there. And if I put them in the same place as the Tomatoes, they kind of grow into a tangled mess and I don't want that.
Ok. I'm going to put the pole beans next to the raised bed, and not build something new, but kind of partition it off. I'm going to take those crappy wood planters that are kind of long, and are terrible, and just take them apart and use the wood to section off an area. So it will be about 8 inches high, not a foot high like the whole raised bed. I think it will look ok. And how high do they need to be, I mean, they're going to grow to be like 8 feet high.
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