If you’re going to grow anything, grow herbs. They virtually
grow themselves! They attract few, if any, pests and most herbs grow back year
after year. The Little St. Simon’s Island garden has been host to an array of herbs
for years, but this winter we’ve taken it to another level by installing four
huge raised beds right in the middle of the garden designated just for
them. What an orchestration it was
getting them in!
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| Naturalists Mike and Laura build bed #3. |
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| The gardener (that's me!) filling the beds. |
The whole team of naturalists took part, sawing lumber, nailing boards, raking dirt, and now, we have 368 square feet more growing space to supply Chef Charles with all the herbs he needs to dream up savory delectables for your palate.
Clearly, it takes a lot of growing space to supply a commercial kitchen, but not so for your home kitchen. You can put a lot of different herbs in a small space in a beautiful display called an herb spiral. Along with the four large traditional raised beds, we built an herb spiral as the centerpiece to our garden. You can put one by your door so all your herb needs are within reach.
Herb spirals are a permaculture garden design
you can adapt to your needs. They’re especially great if you’re short on garden
space because you build up rather than out. By creating height with a wall of brick or stone, you’re
also helping to create microclimates in your bed. The stone traps heat. And it
creates sunny and shadier places in the space as the sun moves across the bed.
The top-level, which you fill with sandy soil, is well suited to herbs that
like it warm, relatively dry and super-sunny, like rosemary and oregano and
thyme. Then as you move down the spiral,
you add a little more compost and plant herbs that prefer loamier soil like
cilantro and basil and parsley until you get to the very bottom where herbs,
like mint, need a moister cooler place to thrive. Some herb spiral designs even
incorporate a pond at the bottom.
If you’re inspired to build one yourself, follow some of
these links to get started. Spirals can be as little as three feet wide or as
big as eight! We watched this herb spiral tutorial on-line,
perused a bunch of designs and scouted around the island dump for recyclable
materials. For our spiral wall, we had a bunch of old bricks from buildings
we’ve been refurbishing on the island. We also have lots of oyster shells piling up from the
evening oyster roasts each week. We used them to build height in the center of
the spiral. Many designs call for gravel, but with the mountains miles away
that’s not an easy find. The
gravel/shell layer not only builds height but it also helps with drainage.
Part of the beauty of the design is that your garden herb
spiral will suit your needs, your own aesthetic and help you make use of
whatever you have lying around to repurpose for a wall. It’s about a day’s work for one person
to put together the infrastructure. Wait about a week to let the soil settle.
Then beautify it by planting your favorite herbs. Keeping consistent with permaculture principles, the spiral
is low maintenance, requiring little energy and water. You just water the top
once a week. Research says after a
year when everything is established, you can just rely on the rain.
Happy planting!
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