Planting an Herb Garden at Home

Herb Gardens are wonderful ideas on several different levels. They can make your Homes outdoor area and outdoor landscaping more attractive and multidimensional. At the same time, they can make your cooking more appealing in a quick and easy way. Find out more about Planting an herb Garden by reading on below.

Grow What Youll Use -

Take a peek in your spice rack. Which herbs do you seem to rely on the most heavily when cooking day-to-day items? If possible, try to plant them in your herb Garden. After all, one of the main reasons to have an herb Garden is to grow herbs that youll use as needed. Before calling up a landscape design Brisbane company, write a list of what types of herbs youd most like to grow in your Garden. That way, when you consult them about your plans youll be able to fill them in about the specifics of what you want and need; this will make the process more streamlined and efficient.
Choose Your Soil Wisely -

If you dont have a lot of knowledge about soil, dont worry. Its fairly easy to learn what types of soil work best for various kinds of herbs. In some cases, the company that you hire to help you design your Garden may have some tips for you about soil, too. Plants draw their nutrients from soil therefore it is critical that you select one that is agreeable with the types of herbs you wish to grow. Using the right soil is one of the easiest ways to ensure the success of your herb Garden.

Organise Your Plants Logically -

Generally speaking, it is usually best to plant similar herbs grouped together. Bushy herbs, then, should be planted near bushy herbs; herbs that tend to spread as they grow should similarly be planted together. As you plan the layout of your herb Garden, its also smart to keep aesthetics in mind. Plant taller herbs toward the centre in order to give it a more organised and pleasing look; try to coordinate colours, too, to make it all look more professional.

In the end, you will end up with an herb Garden that will not only enhance the appearance of your Home, but will provide you with a steady supply of ingredients when you need to whip up something delicious. Youll wonder why you didnt plant one sooner, when your friends and family members begin exclaiming about the incredible deliciousness of the food that you prepare with those herbs.

If youve been thinking about putting an herb Garden into your outdoor area, you should also think about hiring a landscape design Brisbane company such as MP Landscapes to help. That way, your landscaping Brisbane can be given an added dose of appeal while the food you cook gets kicked up a notch with a lovely splash of fresh herbs.

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Garden Designers Roundtable Texture in the Landscape A Musical Analogy

I’ve been thinking about texture lately.  Texture is one of those generic garden topics like “color” that every garden book dedicates an obligatory chapter.   Photos of hostas, ferns, and other foliage plants often follow.  Despite the rather clichéd use of the word in garden literature, the idea of texture in the landscape does not seem fully explored.  So to better understand what texture might mean in landscape sense, I turn to music. 

According to one source, texture in music means “a structure of interwoven fibers.”  In music, texture refers to the way multiple voices (or instruments) interact in a composition.  Texture in music is a way of understanding hierarchy.  Which voice is prominent?  Are they all equal?  How do they combine to create the whole?  Already my mind was spinning about materials in a landscape.  Texture is not just about a type of plant (i.e. big leaf foliage plants), but about the way materials or plants work together to create effects.  That got me thinking: how do we combine materials for artistic effect? 

Music theory describes four types of texture in music: monophonic, polyphonic, homophonic, and heterophonic.  Now before you glaze over, each of these concepts has some rather fascinating ways of understanding texture in a landscape setting.  Consider these visual analogies:

Monophonic Texture

Monophonic texture is music consisting of a single melodic line.  This may be sung by one person or several.  Think about Gregorian chant or even singing “happy birthday” in unison.  In the garden setting, this might describe a large mass of a single species like this sweep of the native Heuchera villosa at Pierces Woods in Longwood Gardens.

Or the repetition of whorled fronds on this massing of Adiatum pedatum (Maidenhair Fern) in a woodland in Vermont.  All of the elements work together to form a single melody.  It creates the effect of legibility and calmness in a composition. 

Polyphonic Texture

Polyphonic texture ("many sounds") describes a musical texture in which two or more melodic lines of equal importance are performed simultaneously.  Think about rounds in music: singing "Row, row, row your boat . . . " in staggered successions (you know, what you do inebriated  at the Irish pub on St. Pattys day).  Composers in the Renaissance and the Baroque used this style in rather complex arrangments.  In planting design, one may combine two different plants with similar textures to heighten and intensify the total effect.  Look at this combination of Hakonechloa macra (Hakone Grass),  Tradescantia Concord Grape (Spiderwort), and Bletilla striata (Hardy Orchid).  From a distance, the two plants read as one mass, but up close, one begins to appreciate the subtley of the contrast.  Combination by Ching-Fang Chen.

Or this combination of two cultivars of Knautia macedonia designed by Piet Oudolf for the Highline. 

Homophonic Texture

Homophonic texture is one we encounter most often in music.  It consists of a single, dominating melody that is accompanied by chords.  Sometimes the chords move at the same rhythm as the melody; other times they move in counterpoint to each other.  The big idea is that the chords are secondary and supportive of the melody.  While this concept is the basis of most music, it is relatively underused concept in planting design.  Consider some good examples of homophonic texture.

Here is a combination of Heuchera villosa Brownies (Coral Bells) and Koeleria macratha (June Grass) by Piet Oudolf for the Highline.  The larger mass of June Grass (melody) is supported by contrasting leaf texture and foliage color in the Coral Bells (harmony). 

Or this image showing how Bronze Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Purpureum) highlights and intensifies the purple tulips in this photo of Great Dixter.

photo by Marian Boswell

Heterophonic Texture 

This was the most complex for me to understand.  In music, heterophonic texture consists of simultaneous variation of a single melodic line, often with two musicians simultaneously performing slightly different versions of the same melody.  Each version is improvised or ornamented version of the same melody rather than a harmonized version (described above in polyphony). This kind of texture is not very common in Western music, but more often found in traditions such as Japanese Gagaku, the gamelan music of Indonesia, and even traditional Appalachian fold music.  Modernist composers like Debussy and Stravinsky played with heterophonic texture.

The closest thing I can think of in planting design are some of the large rivers of salvia created by Piet Oudolf in many of his designs.  The central gesture of the Lurie Garden in Chicago is a boomerang-shaped river of Salvia nemerosa.

drawing by GGN Landscape Architects

What makes this a heterophonic texture is the mixing of different cultivars of Salvia.  Each supports the larger melodic gesture, but each cultivar adds a slight variation or ornamentation of the melody.  What you get is a feeling of added depth and sparkle that would not be possible with a single cultivar.  From a practical point of view, using different cultivars also extends the season of interest.

image by Archidose

The same effect is done with Salvia in this Piet Oudolf project. The different Salvias provide a kind of heterophonic texture that reinforces and diversifies the larger melody.  This is very advanced composition work, but Oudolf is the master. 

IN THE END, what became apparent to me was how limited our design vocabularly is when it comes to planting design.  While great artists like Piet Oudolf and other designers may be experimenting with some of these ideas, garden and landscape design disciplines lack the language--the conceptual framework--to discuss composition in depth.  Other artistic disciplines have much richer languages for this.  Perhaps, until we develop our own language for planting design, we can borrow from our sister arts to better undertand our own art.

To learn about other designers take on texture, please visit some of these excellent blogs:

David Cristiani: The Desert Edge: Albequerque, NM

Pam Penick: Digging: Austin, TX

Rebecca Sweet: Gossip in the Garden: Los Altos, CA

Deborah Silver: Dirt Simple: Detroit, MI

Christina Salwitz: Personal Garden Coach: Renton, WA

Douglas Owens-Pike: Energyscapes: Minneapolis, MN

Robert Webber: The Hegarty Webber Partnership: Bristol, Avon, UK

Andrew Keys: Garden Smackdown: Boston, MA

Rochelle Greayer: Studio G: Boston, MA

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day January 2012

The weather has been pretty mild so far but we are now feeling the cold as the temperature plummets to a chilly 27 degrees.   My zone 7 Long Island garden is in winter mode and just the bare bones are present.  One of the nice elements of winter is that the season supplies some down time to walk around the garden and take inventory.   I am already getting ideas for next season and the imagination is running wild.  Its only January and this gardener is already looking forward to next season with great enthusiasm.  As many a gardener may agree... gardening can go on all year....plan all winter and embellish all spring, summer and fall!

Winter is  a very good time to plan  the "foundation" of the landscape.  While gazing out my window on a cold winters day a few years ago I came up with the idea for this crab orchard walkway.  It replaced an old cement pathway leading up to the front doorway that had lost its charm and did not have as many curves as the new updated version.  The new walkway gives a little element of surprise as it winds around the garden bends on the way to the front door.

Our stone walkway is surrounded by evergreen shrubs and sedges along with clusters of yellow, purple and pink perennials that bloom in the spring.  On the right there is a Weeping White Birch and down a way is a Weeping White Pine along with more evergreen shrubs.                             

Montgomery Globe Spruce

One aspect that I really do enjoy about gardening is incorporating many colorful evergreens. They are especially appreciated in the winter months when other shrubs and perennials become dormant. Here is one of my favorites...a Montgomery Globe Spruce.  


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Montgomery Globe Spruce is a dwarf conifer that grows only to two to three feet in diameter and keeps its vibrant silvery-blue color all year round.  There are so many beautiful evergreens that are not at all green that can be brought into the garden. 

Some of the other evergreens that I enjoy are Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar, Weeping White Pine, Gold Spot Euonymus and Boxwood Wintergem (pictured here).  I also have a special affection for my Picea orientalis Skyland Yellow Oriental Spruce  (first photograph above front left) and Golden Hinoki Cypress (first photograph above front right).  Their golden hue is even more prominent in winter.


The berry producing plants such as holly, viburnum and this Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) are interesting at this time of year and the foliage stays evergreen as well.  I have had this Nandina domestica Gulf Stream for many years now and it just keeps getting more interesting year after year.

Here in the backyard along my patio is a Weeping Pussy Willow along with Gold Mop Cypress, Blue Star Juniper, Repandens  Spreading Yew and Barberry.   The crab orchard stone path leads from the patio to the back lawn.  In the summertime I like to sit out on my patio and gaze at this particular part of the garden.  For now Ill just dream about the peony, daylilies and purple salvia that will emerge in spring but at least there are my evergreens.

                                        




It wouldnt be the same if garden gal wasnt in the picture so here she is enjoying her mondo grass planter.

I found Garden gal in the local nursery years ago and she has been my whimsey in the garden ever since.  When I was about five I wore a hat just like hers and probably carried the basket of flowers to match.  She reminds me of myself...always a gardener at heart.


                                       

Pictured here is our pool covered up for winter and surrounding gardens. Again just the "bare bones" but the evergreens give something to look at through the back window.  I have  a feeling that it wont be long now until this poolscape is covered in snow since the temperatures are dropping. 


The back perennial garden sleeps.  When April arrives there will be various blooming bulbs including crocus, tulips and hyancinths.  Perennials such as coral bells, daylilies and balloon flower along with ornamental grasses and  evergreens will emerge later on.

Here the Star Magnolia is forming its soft white flower buds for spring...

and the graceful Weeping Japanese Maple is showing its artistic framework...

As the sun lowers towards the horizon another day has passed, and the garden rests.

Much thanks to our hostess Carol at May Dreams Gardens for another Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I hope you have enjoyed my January garden. Please be sure to stop by and visit our hostess for more January blooms around the world.   As always...Happy Gardening!


One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns

Author:Lee@ A Guide To Northeastern Gardening Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day Foliage Follow Up January 2014 A Closer Look

January Garden Bitter Freeze

At this time of year when there is a stillness in the air and temperatures colder than I care to encounter, it is time to gaze into the garden for a closer focus on the details that may normally be overlooked.   The winter is a time to concentrate on the inner beauty of the landscape...the part of the garden that is sometimes hidden from view.  

Snow Covered Barberry

With my increasing growing interest in garden writing and photography, I strive to capture a view that is a little different from the ordinary.  Over time I have found a new appreciation for the simplest aspects of nature, such as the snow covered barberry in the photo above...

Blue Atlas Cedar (Cedrus Atlantica)

or the branches of a Blue Atlas Cedar against the backdrop of a blue sky...

Acer palmatum Sangu Kaku (Coral Bark Maple) and Golden Oriental Spruce Skyland

or the exposed coral red branches of a Japanese Maple against the yellow-green needles of a Golden Oriental Spruce.  I am trying to look at nature in a different light as some may say.

Acer palmatum Sangu Kaku (Coral Bark Maple) Branches up Close

It was good timing to have camera in hand in order to capture the branches of the Coral Bark Maple. The frigid temperatures have dramatically brought out the colors and they are more vivid than I have remembered for some time.

Backyard Side Garden (Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar, Gold Mop Cypress, Royal Burgundy Barberry, Euonymus Gold Spot, Arborvitae, Dwarf Butterfly Bush, Knock Out Roses and Heuchera Caramel)

Here is one wide shot view to show a little perspective in the garden.  This is the backyard perimeter garden in winter mode.  I wait in anticipation for the emergence of burgundy and medium green foliage, fragrant purple blooms, pink roses and caramel colored perennials once spring arrives. 

Hydrangea Tardivia Winter

In an effort to get a little more creative with the lens I aimed upward into the sky when trying to capture this Tardivia Hydrangea faded bloom.  While still working on the perfect focal distance, I was fortunate enough to have just the right amount of back lighting to provide some contrast. 

Weeping Japanese Trunk Maple Winter

Weeping Japanese Maple is a tree I really have grown to appreciate all year round.  It has reached a mature age of somewhere between twenty and thirty years and each winter the trunk becomes just a little more twisted and contorted in character.

Magnolia Royal Star

Here the new buds of the Magnolia are growing larger and larger each month.  Spring is on the way slowly but surely.

Moss Covered Rock and Sweet Flag

Why am I taking a photograph of moss?  There was something about snow next to this moss covered rock with the yellow-green of the sedge that caught my eye.  Nature really does have a lot to offer and I try not to let it go unnoticed.

Nandina domestica (False or Heavenly Bamboo)

Here is my Nandina domestica.  I have had it for years and have grown to love its vibrant red berries in winter.  Sadly this is the last photograph I was able to take of it before it was moved today to work on the oil tank.  It will likely not make it through the winter so I will have to get a new one in the spring for both myself and the birds. That means I will have to work in the garden...its a tough job but someone has to do it!

Nandina domestica (False or Heavenly Bamboo)

A piece of branch fell into the snow and gave me the idea for this photograph. I really do like this plant.

Rosemary in Herb Garden

Normally my Rosemary in the herb garden does not make it through the winter but I have actually had this particular one for three years now! It was planted during a year with a mild winter so it was able to harden off and develop into a miniature shrub.  This has been an exceptionally brutal winter so I am hoping it continues to thrive.

Garden Friends

Structure is so important is a garden and besides many evergreens in the garden I also like a little whimsy.  This garden statue is one of my favorites!

Juniperus Pro Nana and Heuchera Caramel

It is difficult finding blooms in the garden at this time of year so I rely on foliage and these Heuchera Caramel never cease to amaze me with their striking foliage that lasts throughout most of the winter.   

 

That ends our walk around the January garden for now. The first month of 2014 came in like a lion with winter storm Hercules on January 2nd bringing a foot of snow and 16°F temperatures, followed by a warming trend with torrential rains and daily temperatures back into the 40s for now.  The garden is still changing in each month and I enjoy looking to find its inner beauty. 

 

Drop a note to let me know youve been here and I will be sure to visit you as well. Also please visit our hostesses Carol at May Dreams Gardens for January Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Pam at Digging for Foliage Follow Up. 

 

(This monthly garden diary can also be viewed on the new My Gardens page.)

 

 

As Always...Happy Gardening!

 

 

Author: Lee@A Guide To Northeastern Gardening, Copyright 2014. All rights reserved. 

  
 

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