Your Herb Garden. Barbara Segall
Propagate
Take cuttings: chicory, sea holly
Divide: chives, costmary, ginger, sorrel
Harvest
Flowers: sweet violet
Leaves: winter purslane
Routine maintenance
PATHS THROUGH THE HERB GARDEN
Herringbone
YOU WILL NEED
builder’s square
brick-laying trowel
spirit level
lump hammer
lines (strings and sticks)
At the most basic level, a path is for access and to ensure that as little of the growing area as possible is damaged by people walking over it.
In a small herb patch a path may not be necessary: you may be able to reach the centre easily and weed, plant, water, mulch and harvest without having to step onto the soil at any point. If you cannot work the herb garden in this way, then you need to lay a path of some sort. The simplest pathway is made by placing stepping stones across a square-shaped bed to divide it into quarters. In a circular bed, arrange the stepping stones as an inner circle a convenient distance in from the edge.
In a large herb garden, the path may provide the main route from kitchen to compost heap, and must therefore be suited to heavier use. Such paths become integral features of the herb garden as they weather and plants grow to soften the hard edges.
There are many different materials which can be used for paths and the choice will depend on your budget and taste. If you are cutting a bed from a grassed area, it is simple to leave strips of lawn in place to form the paths. Make sure that the width is adequate to allow your lawn mower through or you will have a problem keeping the paths mown.
Gravel or washed pea-shingle are relatively low-cost materials that look effective in a hot, Mediterranean-style herb garden. Lay black polythene over the base to suppress weeds. Cover this with a layer of pea-shingle 3cm (1¼in) deep: any deeper and it will be difficult to walk on. Edge the path with narrow battens of treated wood, so that the gravel does not spread into the herb beds.
Brick looks very attractive laid in patterns and is the most traditional material for herb garden paths. It is more expensive than gravel, but is very hardwearing. If you live in a cold climate, make sure that the bricks you use are frostproof.
Other materials include setts and cobbles, reconstituted and natural stone pavers, log rounds, woodchips and bark. The paths in the project are made from reconstituted stone pavers and divide the herb garden into four. The central area can be left empty to allow for a plant or a container, sundial or piece of garden statuary.
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