4: Designing Your Herb Garden in .NET

Drawer EAN 13 in .NET 4: Designing Your Herb Garden

Monster leaves: Grow cardoon, which reaches a height of 6 to 8 feet, for pure mass Plant it where you won t inadvertently brush up against the spines of this thistle relative Or surround your house with a living fence of closely spaced cardoon plants and ditch your home security system Mound: Some herbs form such perfect mounds that you want to reach down and pet them like a sleeping cat These make good edging plants, or you can use them for contrast with floppy or spiky plants Good mounders include chamomile, feverfew, many types of lavender, and some of the artemisia clan such as Silver Mound and Powis Castle Groundcovers: Creepy crawly herbs, such as sweet woodruff, cover ground and suppress weeds between other plants An herb gardener s trick is to tuck chamomile and the low-growing thymes between stepping-stones, where they release their fragrance when you step on or brush against them Hanging: Herbs with limp stems look lush dangling from a hanging basket or draped across the side of a raised bed or window box A few good candidates are borage, catmint, lemon balm, prostrate rosemary, thyme, nasturtium, oregano (especially dittany of Crete, Origanum dictamnus), and some scented geraniums Vines: Use climbing herbs such as hops, honeysuckle (Lonicera spp), Carolina jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens), climbing nasturtium, or passionflower on a trellis for privacy or to give other herbs a windbreak In a border (a planting area that backs to a wall or fence), put tall plants toward the back; in a bed (a planting area exposed on all sides), set tall plants in the center Floppy plants work best along the edges, while groundcovers will blanket bare earth between other herbs (Make sure that taller neighbors don t steal all their sun)

Look up the word fragrance in a thesaurus, and what do you see A list of herbs, from allspice to vanilla In fact, fragrance so characterizes herbs that coming up with a list of herbs that don t smell wonderful might be the easiest way to deal with this category Nonetheless, we plunge daringly ahead, suggesting a few of our favorites Crush a few leaves of the following plants and see whether you agree: Scented geraniums: These olfactory superstars deserve billing above the title, as they say in the marquee biz You can choose from scents such as rose, apricot, almond, mint, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate mint, coconut, eucalyptus, lemon, orange, camphor, pine, strawberry, and apple Mints: If geraniums get the gold medal, mint and thyme tie for silver There are mints that smell of apple laced with menthol, or lime, chocolate (think York Peppermint Patties), banana, ginger, grapefruit, orange, and more

Thymes: Go straight for lemon thyme, which actually does smell like citrus Then try orange, caraway, lavender, mint, and nutmeg You can even find thyme that smells like oregano Lavenders: The discerning nose will find some varieties sweeter and others more medicinal English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) has the clean scent of lace handkerchiefs, while French (also known as Spanish) lavender (L stoechas) smells more like something used for treating sports injuries and battling bugs Catmint: Said not to attract cats the way catnip does, catmint also has a stronger and more appealing scent for the human nose Some compare it to mint jelly; we think it has undertones of pine or cedar Curry: It s a marvel how nature stuffed the aroma of curry, an East Indian concoction made up of as many as 20 different herbs and spices, into a single plant Ironically, curry is not a culinary herb, but the silvery 12- to 18-inch plants make a great edging, and you can pluck the leaves for potpourri