Herby update

Spring 2014 - sage plant replaced

I've finished clearing the herb wheel - replaced the tarragon and thyme with new plants, clipped the oregano, topped up all the sections with new compost... and dug out as much as I can find of the mint roots. There's one section now left to plant with something new to replace the mint. More chives and parsley will probably be added in the spring.

The sage has grown a lot since the new plant was put in less than a year ago - probably needs cutting back a bit, but that's a job for spring time.

Rejuvenating herb wheel

January 2008

May 2010

Seven years ago, I created a herb "wheel" in the French garden by screwing together six hexagonal planters, then planting them with various herbs. Over the years these have been productive, but some herbs have done much better than others. Thyme and oregano produced lovely shapes in the planter, and fennel gave some summer height to the centre. Sage was a good plant but gradually grew too woody so last year I replaced it with a new specimen. A big mistake, though, was planting mint in one of the outer sections. I should have known that wooden edges would be no barrier to the intrusive mint roots spreading under the surface. Over the years it has got into every section and even forced its way between the wooden slats and outside the planter completely. I'm now trying to rejuvenate the entire planter and spent some time today attempting to remove the mint shoots from a couple of the sections. In future I will confine mint to a ceramic planter on the steps, so that it doesn't have the opportunity to spread into unwanted areas! However, to eliminate it from the wheel means digging out each section to clear the roots, so I'll be replacing the existing plants one by one.