Winter savory in Visual Studio .NET

Generation EAN13 in Visual Studio .NET Winter savory

Herbs are some of the most sensuous plants ever created, but gardeners don t always situate them where all their qualities can be savored Most of them don t release their delectable fragrances into the air by themselves, as lilacs or rugosa roses do Instead, they must be crushed or at least brushed against, so we urge you to plant them where you can stroke them or even dance on them The area to the north of the patio shown in Figure 5-5 is shady and damp, providing ideal conditions to grow tall valerian and sweet woodruff as a groundcover Fragrant, feathery-foliaged fennel (say that fast 20 times) and the fragrant double soapwort cultivar Saponaria officinalis Rosea Plena are containerized (both species are invasive in a friendly climate) Next to our chaise we have a wrought-iron shelf for herbs that we like to caress: scented geraniums are a great choice So are rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, and lavender

Lamb s ear: If you re an herbal purist, you ll grow betony (Stachys officinalis), at the base of your apothecary rose (Rosa gallica officinalis) You can use betony to make a tea that may treat a headache or sore throat But no garden for the senses is complete without lamb s ear (Stachys byzantina), betony s second cousin It likes full sun and makes a fine edging plant, and its fuzzy gray leaves are endless fun to pet It self-sows unless you get a non-flowering cultivar, such as Silver Carpet Both Stachys tolerate a little shade, and will be perfectly happy on the north side of your big rose Dame s rocket: Also called sweet rocket and dame s violet, Hesperis matronalis will perfume an entire garden when it produces its magenta (or occasionally white or lavender) flowers in early summer This plant lives only a couple of years, but self-sows eagerly Europeans use the new leaves of dames rocket to spice up salads, plus, they re rich in vitamin C Carolina jasmine: A southeastern native, Gelsemium sempervirens is an evergreen vine with fragrant yellow flowers that open in early spring Not a true jasmine, it s also known as false jasmine and Carolina jessamine Herbalists use it externally for facial pain, but it s extremely poisonous if ingested; gardeners in areas where the average minimum temperature is zero (Zone 7) and south should plant it for its scent and year-round screening Gardeners in colder regions can plant woodbine, a honeysuckle we also recommend for the Shakespeare garden Juniper: The common juniper, Juniperus communis, is the plant whose berries are used medicinally and to flavor gin If you just want a pretty, low hedge, you can plant golden yellow Depressa Aurea For privacy, choose three or four Hibernica , plants that grow 15 feet high but only a foot wide If you expand your search to Chinese juniper, J chinensis, you can still have pungent foliage and find shrubs that grow both relatively tall and broad Sea Green , which grows 6 feet high and across, is a good choice

We ve also designed this patio to give you some privacy, with a trellis to the north and an evergreen shrub to the south, so neighbors can t catch you as you wallow around in the thyme or rub leaves of lamb s ear over your face

If you look at drawings of old knot gardens, you can see that they weren t intended for growing herbs for harvest so much as for showing off the wealth (or leisure time) of their owners Often, the areas between the knots were filled not with plants but with pebbles or turf, or earth that was colored with crushed minerals A closed knot had no paths between blocks to allow access for picking the herbs But even if you have both space and time to spare, you may want to put it to a more productive purpose than impressing the neighbors with your pruning skills So in the interest of efficiency, we ve designed an intensively planted but relatively simple knot design (shown in Figure 5-6) that gives you an ample variety of herbs useful for medicine and tea The traditional knot in the center, based on an equilateral triangle, is a triquetra (also known as a shamrock design) By surrounding it with an outer edging, we ve provided divisions for six additional herbs See the sidebar Tying a triquetra knot for how-to info