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Creating Your Own Herb Rock Garden
By Flower | February 6, 2010
When I was a kid, I lived out in a rural community and we only had clay dirt once you dug about 6 or 12 inches down. When you are planning your garden, you’ve got to put sunshine and sod quality at the top of the list of things to consider. You need the right balance of both as well as the necessary water. With the right combination of water, dirt and sun, you can cultivate just about anything.
To solve my clay earth problems, I turned to rock gardening, which focuses on adding lots of rocks to your landscape and focusing on plants that only need a few inches of good earth.
A rock garden focuses on the positive features that you may have in your yard already or those that you want to create. Some herb plants truly love the rocky craggy soil that you have in areas like this all over the world. If you don’t have the rocky earth and want the aesthetic of a rock garden, be sure you’ve got room for roots to grow and also some good drainage.
When planning your herb garden, be sure that you are choosing plants that will stay compact, because with limited room you don’t want anything taking over. Look at your reference books for the right herbs for rock gardens. Good ones are those with silver or gray leaves. It is not a hard-and-fast rule, but it should help in making good decisions.
- Hen-and-Chicks: {I can’t imagine cutting open a hen or chick and rubbing it on a wart, but this perennial succulent herb, which is also known as St. Patrick’s cabbage, has a long history of doing just that.} Each leaf will hold enough water to make it through one day without water. Each one can grow to four inches across and each “hen” can have many off-shoots or “chicks.” In the summer, a 9 inch spike will arise from the center of each mature hen to display pinkish-red blooms. The plant can continue to add off-shoots and grow into a colony of herbs.
- Wild Oregano: This perennial from the Mediterranean region can grow vigorously up to 30 inches tall with its oval leaves and purple flowers that bloom late in the summer. Although you certainly may eat this kind of oregano, it won’t quite be the same as the Greek oregano you are familiar with from Italian meals.
- Marjoram: It’s great when you can sculpt a lovely rock garden using culinary herb plants like Marjoram. Its oval gray-green leaves have a sweet scent that will remind you of your favorite pasta sauce and its tiny white flowers can bring a smile to your face. For marjoram to retain its shape and form, keep it cut back (use the clippings in your Italian dishes) so that it can keep growing well—full sun and the good drainage in your rock garden will help too.
- Thyme: The shiny, small leaves of the thyme plant are clustered along woody stems that are adorned with numerous white or pink flowers and grows to a height of up to a foot. It enjoys the sandy soils that provide well-drainage and full sunshine. Thyme has a tendency to grow like crazy, so keep it cut back to maintain its compact shape.
Part of the beauty of rock gardens is the contrast of the hard rocks and the soft herbs. The difference in colors also helps in achieving a sense of the awesome. You can even use aromatic and culinary herb plants in your rock garden, which will give you all the benefits of a regular herb garden.
Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.
Here is more information on Herb Garden Designs. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.
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