More herb garden…
The aesthetic herb garden - create it in your own garden.
A few years ago, in the magazine, you could follow our project of creating an aesthetic herb garden in the backyard, where the headquarters of JDL was then located. We who made it did not have any special qualifications, and we had no experience in planting or maintaining a herb garden. We questioned ourselves and tried our best along the way. In the pictures above you can see the result, in the pictures below you can see before and during. You can see or review all the articles if you have access to our digital editions, via a paid subscription to Club JDL Exclusive. Registration right here
The dream was to create a cozy herb garden, which is beautiful and fragrant, while also providing some crops for the dinner table. We already had our beautiful "gazebo", which our handyman Ole built a few years ago. It is built from recycled materials and has a lovely view over the fields. It was an obvious place to plant the herb garden. But you can easily make a similar herb garden, in the middle of a lawn or at the end of your house. Around the house was a large lawn. Grass had to be removed and excavated so that we could lay stone flour as a substrate. we wanted the garden above all to be neat and easy to maintain. Therefore, raised beds were an obvious choice. They are made from pallet frames and filled with straw bales before we put soil on them.
One thing we unfortunately didn't do was fertilize the soil. We just used the soil we had dug up and that was a mistake. Our vegetables didn't grow quite as big over the summer as they could have. We have put a chestnut fence around the garden and planted a small hedge of boxwood plants. It frames the garden in the most beautiful way. We were surprised ourselves at the effect it had when the fence and hedge came up. It made the garden much, much nicer.
To make the fence more stable, we have dug strong posts of ruby wood. We also put a gate in to the garden. On one side of the house, we have made a plant table out of an old wallpaper table. Here you can stand and replant and have all the things gathered in one place. A small cozy nook with a wicker chair has also been created. In front of the house, we have placed a set of garden furniture so that you can sit and enjoy a meal or a cup of coffee. the furniture is decorative in itself all year round.
We chose the easy solution and took a trip to the nursery and picked up most of the things as seedlings. Then it was just a matter of getting planting sticks made and planting out. Before we left, we made a plan of what things we wanted. Loads of herbs that we just love and that are really easy to care for take up two whole pallet frames. The other boxes were a mixture of vegetables, fruit and flowers.
Inside the house, we have arranged a dining area, a corner with a hammock for relaxation and a few places where you can do different things. It is wonderful to be able to go inside on the cold days and stay here in the shelter. Since there are many windows in the house, it works a bit like a greenhouse. it gets hot quickly in there, making the season longer at both ends. You can even set up a heater in the winter. It doesn't take much to warm up the small room. here you can enjoy a great many days all year round, in fact very close to nature. We have planted a vine in every corner of the house. They are planted in the ground outside and grow up through a hole in the floor. Tomatoes, chillies, melons, citrus fruits and other delicate plants can grow well in here. They just need plenty of water on hot days.
