Last summer, it became very apparent that my herb garden needed a lot of help.
It had become over run with weeds, the oregano was taking over any space that wasn't already taken over by weeds and the thyme had already been killed but the invasion. And it wasn't just a matter of pulling the weeds.
The soil was filled with roots coming from . . . well, I didn't know where they were coming from. In June, I dug the remaining herbs, two kinds of oregano, chives and mint, transplanted them into flower pots and started digging out the mess. The roots hidden in the soil were . . . well, see for yourself . . .
Unfortunately, like all too many summer projects in my world, even though I went back and worked on the herb garden when I could, it never got finished.
Last weekend, taking advantage of the fact that we've had such an early spring and I already had my flower beds cleaned out and it was too early to be planting the vegetable garden, I decided to tackle the herb garden, determined to finish it.
The roots in the end that hadn't been touch last year weren't quite as bad as last year, so it went a little faster. But they were still pretty bad. I am surprised that anything had been able to grow. I still didn't know what the roots were or where they were coming from, as the bottom of the garden had been covered with plastic before it was filled with soil.
Liam thought that this was a good project for him to help with, however he seemed to think that it would be much faster if I had better equipment.
The roots had pushed there way right through the plastic. And judging by the size, they are not just grass roots from the surrounding lawn, I have to assume that they are roots from the nearby trees.
When I flipped the garden frame over, the plastic was filled with holes. At this point, the plan to remove the plastic, replace it with landscape fabric and fill it back up. Unfortunately, when the plastic was removed, we discovered that the wood was quite rotten and that it was probably a good idea to scrap it and start over completely. So, the project was put on hold.
This weekend, we started over. Henry built a new 6'x6' cedar box with landscape fabric covering the bottom. It is a little smaller than the old 6'x8' foot garden that was removed, but it was bigger than I needed because we were reusing an old sandbox that was already built.
It wasn't long before the new herb garden was filled and ready to plant. There wasn't much to plant right now, but I was eager to get what I had settled.
The chives survived almost a year in a flower pot! So they should be happy to have a new home.
I found a few baby oregano plants when I was digging out roots, so they have been replanted nicely.
And last year's parsley is coming back up in the vegetable garden, so instead of tilling it all under when we till the garden, I transplanted a couple plants in the herb garden!
I even transplanted a few earth worms from the vegetable garden to the new herb garden.
I am happy to have this project crossed off my outdoor to do list after being "in progress" for almost a year! Now to decide what my next project will be!
