Our New Herb Garden- Le Château de Chenonceau Style

Tags

cooking, France, French, gardening, grilling, herb garden, herbs, landscaping, potager

Since our potager isn’t located close to our kitchen at all (it’s further away from our house down on the first bank), it wasn’t an ideal location for my herbs. I can’t just run out quickly when making dinner to add a spring of something or another.

Four years ago, The Town Mouse posted a picture of the herb garden at le château de Chenonceau (Chenonceaux, France) that I have coveted ever since. The recessed pots are adorable and would help deter mints and other herbs from taking over the entire garden.

Town Mouse’s picture of an herb garden at le château de Chenonceau (Chenonceaux, France)

The perfect spot for the herb garden was just off the back deck. It is the perfect location for both kitchen and grill access. At the beginning of last year, we turned a tight v- shaped corner (between the deck, pool deck, and pool) into a garden bed. We removed the grass, lined it with black plastic, mulched, edged it with mountain stone, while lining the pool side with small river rock. The only plant in the area was a spiraea we transplanted (and rescued) from next to the AC unit.

Last night, I purchased terra-cotta pots and herbs for my new garden. On the upper lip of the pots, I brushed on 2 coats of a terra-cotta sealant, 2 coats of paint (formulated for terra-cotta), and finished with two more coats of the sealant. I had these supplies left over from a previous project.

This morning, we were ready to create our new herb garden. I’m actually surprised Hubster was so agreeable to this design, when I first showed him the picture years ago, he didn’t care for it. First, I laid out the pots to determine their arrangement. Then, I pushed aside the old mulch and cut a hole in the plastic, and Hubster loosened holes in the clay soil. Once I recessed the pots into the new holes, I back-filled any exterior gaps with the clay soil and filled the pots with potting soil. I smoothed the old mulch back around the pots and planted the herbs.

I planted thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, fennel, chives, peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint, and bee balm. I actually think we’re going to add two more pots and create a fourth row in the back. I already have two types of basil and a lavender that I’d like to add there. Most of the herbs are perennials and will come back each year, so it’ll be easy to supplement the annual varieties.

Our New Herb Garden – Front View

Our New Herb Garden – Deck View

Our New Herb Garden – Poolside View

I can’t wait to update this post when the herbs have filled out and been topped off with fresh mulch!

UPDATE:
We added two more pots in the back!

Another Row Added

What do you think of our new herb garden?
What herbs do you keep in your garden?

XOXO,
Young Wifey 

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Our Own Mini Orchard

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apple, cherry, fruit trees, gardening, landscaping, orchard, peach, pear, plum, potager, redbud, trees

Last year, Hubster & I planted four weeping cherry trees and a Japanese maple. One weeping cherry didn’t make it through the first year, but we had a one-year warranty and replaced it. While we were at the garden center, we decided to finally start our own mini orchard.

The past few weeks we’ve been busy planting, mulching, and watering our 12 new trees. Two were ornamental; the weeping cherry and an Eastern redbud.

Own Own Mini Orchard

We planted 10 fruit trees in a line wrapping around from the top of the hill behind our house and curving down the hill to the left side of our house. The new mini orchard perfectly frames our pool, fire-pit, and hammock. Starting from the back to the front we planted one of each: Golden Delicious Semi-Dwarf Apple, Red Delicious Semi-Dwarf Apple, Methley Semi-Dwarf Plum, Bruce Semi-Dwarf Plum, Keiffer Semi-Dwarf Pear, Bartlet Semi-Dwarf Pear, Elberta Semi-Dwarf Peach, Hale Haven Semi-Dwarf Peach, Black Tartarian Cherry, and Bing Semi-Dwarf Cherry.

Foliage is Filling In

The foliage is already filling in nicely, and some small blooms have appeared. I’ll post an update once they’re a little more established.

XOXO,
Young Wifey

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 8

Tags

food, garden, gardening, kitchen garden, potager, radishes, raised beds, sunchokes, sustainable living, vegetable garden

This week has been busy in our garden, both our potager and landscaping. I think the muscles in my back are proving that we overdid it… (Hubster said that I’m not allowed to have any sore muscles or back pain while I’m in my 20’s….)

Indoors: I sowed more seeds; lettuces, cabbage, and even some indoor radishes (I want to see how they perform indoors and might try to grow some year round…). I started more romaine and celery from kitchen scraps, and removed he potatoes from my kitchen windows sill to make room…

Outdoors:Hubster built me four new raised beds, one 1’x2′ for my Jerusalem artichokes (aka: sunchokes) and three 1.5’x1.5′ for my sweet potatoes, potatoes and blue potatoes.

Small Raised Beds

In the largest raised bed I planted some cauliflower and celery starters I purchased from the local garden store. We had a few nights when temperatures dropped and frost hit, but I was prepared. I used glass bowls and vases as mini greenhouses to protect my tender plants.

Cauliflower & Celery

Mini Green Houses

This week’s weather look fantastic again (tomorrow is supposed to reach 88°F!!!), so I’m hoping my back feels better soon. I want to get a lot of outdoor work done…

Week 7: More Peas, Carrots, Radishes
Week 6: I took a break!!!!
Week 5: More Tomatoes, Peppers & Lettuce
Week 4: Carrots, Radishes, Peas & Sugar Snap Peas

Ravenous for Radishes

Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

What progress is your garden making?

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 7

Tags

garden, peas, potager, radishes, salad garden, seedlings, sugar snap peas, sustainable living, vegetable garden

I took a break from my seeds last week since I went away for the weekend. When I was gone, Hubster just about killed my seedlings! Fortunately, I was able to nurture most of them back to health.

Pumpkin also munched on all the scallions and didn’t save the roots, except for three that were left in the container, my supply is busted…  I think these boys are trying to sabotage my garden!

This week, I was able to directly sow more seeds in my raised beds. Time for more carrots, peas, sugar snap peas and radishes.

Radishes - Planted 3 Weeks Ago

Peas & Sugar Snap Peas - Planted 3 Weeks Ago

Week 6: I took a break!!!!
Week 5: More Tomatoes, Peppers & Lettuce
Week 4: Carrots, Radishes, Peas & Sugar Snap Peas
Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

What did you do in your garden this week?

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 5

Tags

food, gardening, kitchen garden, potager, salad garden, sustainable living, vegetable garden

This weekend was chilly and rainy, I didn’t get any more seeds sowed outside in the raised beds.  The forecast looks bleak this coming week, and or taste of warmer weather my be over.

In my windowsill, the celery is showing roots at the bottom and Pumpkin attacked the scallions which had completed regenerated in only 3 weeks. We started to root the ends of romaine lettuce in my crème brûlée dishes, and we can’t wait to see how they grow.

I decided to sow some seeds indoors, I started another 2 rows of each variety of tomatoes and pepper that I did one week one. I also sowed a mix of lettuce and am waiting to see how that turns out.

Week 4: Carrots, Radishes, Peas & Sugar Snap Peas
Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 4

Tags

crops, gardening, kitchen garden, potager, sustainable living

Please forgive me, I’m a day late with this post, but it has been simply gorgeous outside and I haven’t been near the computer much. First using a layer of newspaper at the bottom as a weed barrier (hopefully, I made it thick enough) and then mixing top soil and mushroom soil we got from a local farmer, Hubster and I filled our raised beds. For $20, our 8’x4′ and one 4’x4′ are filled.

I checked out Smart Gardener and starting playing around with some of the layout. Compared with the info from Sprout Robot, I was ready to start sowing seeds outdoors. Afterall, they don’t really know that our plants are three weeks early this year.

Smart Gardener

This week I direct sowed Burpee’s Super Sugar Snap Peas, Easy Peasy Peas, Perfecto Radishes and Kaleidoscope Mix Carrots. After I placed the seeds, Belle decided to throw her frisbee and drag it across the top of the radishes and carrots. Ugh! We’ll see how many of them got tossed about. I plan on planting these in succession (weekly) across the furthest 4’x4′ bed each week.

Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 3

Tags

gardening, kitchen garden, potager, raised beds

This weekend was all about getting my raised beds built! Saturday morning, Hubster drove to the sawmill to purchase raw lumber for my raised beds. Today the weather was glorious! This morning while I was working on my urn planters, Hubster & Pumpkin were busy cutting and building my boxes. We decided to start with two 4′ x 4′ boxes and one 4′ x 8′ box. The location of them is a bit awkward, because our property is so hilly and we get the best sun in the front. Once we establish that this layout works, we’ll incorporate a few more beds and fruit trees.

Raised Beds

After a few cloudy days, my tomatoes showed specks of mold in a few spots of the soil! Oh no! I quickly removed the dome lid to give them more air and brewed a cup of strong chamomile tea. Once the tea cooled, I gave the soil a good spritz and again the next day. The mold was gone and it was sunny again, so the soil was able to dry up some. Let’s hope I side-stepped this obstacle.  The celery is starting to show new growth, the potatoes are steady, the pepper plants are finally popping through the soil and the scallions have 4″ of growth in only one week!

Seven Days Growth

My potager is coming together, Thanks Hubster & Pumpkin! Now, if only I could have some steps build into the hill…

Week 2: Scallions (some people call green onions) & celery
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potato & Potato Vines

How does your garden grow?