Giardino di Erba

I finally got my herb garden in. Two years ago I had a respectable miniature herb garden in pots on our little townhouse patio. It was lush and pretty, and I harvested herbs all season long for cooking. Last summer, our first at Villa Pellegrini, the herbs languished in their pots, overgrown and root bound, and I was just too busy to overhaul them. My prize rosemary, that I had trained into a little tree, died of thirst this winter. Yes, I did forget that even in winter, plants do need water.

This year, I am starting over with a fresh crop of herbs. We had enough landscaping stone left from from the front yard project to make a little stacked raised bed border just off the kitchen porch. Our landscaper built the border and even filled it with garden mix for an extraordinarily reasonable price, which meant that I could get right to the fun part of buying and setting out herbs.

For now the herbs are the usual suspects, mostly from Lowe's, plus a few little specialties from the Memphis Botanic Garden's annual sale and Lichterman Nature Center's annual sale, both held conveniently on the same rainy day in April: Parsley (standard and Italian), Sage (a couple of varieties), Rosemary (a new start), and Thyme (three varieties). Plus some dill, taragon, and LOTS of Basil. I am trying again with Cilantro, from seed, although I have not had much luck in the past with it. It needs a lot of direct sun. I will add some in the vegetable garden when I get it planted. I also added in some annual flowers and border plants for a little flair. Now that I have the basics in, I can focus on collecting some "boutique" herb varieties.

Target had these little write-on plant markers in their dollar bin last summer. I got several packs of them, but now I wish I'd gotten more. This little Rosemary sprig is a far cry from the thick, bushy Rosemary I'm used to. I may need to buy it a friend.

I got this dill from the Botanic Garden sale. It was not cheap, and it must be a yummy variety, because in literally two days, a gang of slugs ate all of it. This picture is all that remains. Fortunately I got what must be a hardier variety at Lowe's that is on the other side of the garden and has not been slug molested yet. I was going to set out some beer traps, but it has only just stopped raining. Plus someone mentioned that dogs have a fondness for beer traps, and I can just see Matt drinking the free beer buffet.

I had a seed packet of dill, so I sowed some more last night, along with some lavender, so we will see how it does. I don't really need much dill, I just remember my grandmother and my great aunt growing heaps of it and I want to recreate that. They used theirs to make"cucumber pickles," which is what they called them. I have no intention of doing any pickling.