Okay. New house, new layout.
Any thought on what herbs would make good scenery? The more herbs, the more happy spouse!
I had found some sort of thyme that looks like a tree, but have misplaced the seeds!
Anybody?
Rosemary makes great trees:
But a little concerned about “The more herbs, the more happy spouse!”
Is she happy because they exist, or because she can harvest the herbs? If you want good looking scenery, you can’t be harvesting it for cooking!
Greg
My oregano thyme looks like a woody tree and the leaves smell just like oregano.
I love and use all the herbs on my layout. Parsley makes a nice tree or large bush. Purple sage or just sage makes background leafy vegetation. I love my oregano which is basically ground cover. But fresh dried oregano hanging in the kitchen in the middle of winter just smells pizza shop awesome. (your in CA so that matters not). Lemon Thyme is ground cover but is fantastic on fish. Chives if trimmed looks like large wild grass and great on baked potato’s.
Make it fun for both of you and let her do whatever herbs she likes. Harvesting them is rewarding.
Young Rosemary grows like a pine tree or an arborvitae, and smells like one too, aaand you can use it in your cooking, and the more you trim it, the more it takes on the look of a tree.
Aloha,
We live near the equator and, due to the mountains, have a relatively dry microclimate in an otherwise wet area. We have to select plants that can take baking and flooding, and herbs have filled the bill where even succulents have failed. CINCHOUSE is an excellent chef, and her culinary proclivities have played a large part in both getting permission to build the Triple O and its horticultural direction.
- Rosemary. We have had (mostly) good luck with rosemary. Tuscan Blue and Romero seem to have the most upright look out of the box. Our first rosemary we “topiaried” into a mountain / tunnel; had I do this over, I would’ve situated it to act as a screen elsewhere rather than as a shtick in full view. Everyone else likes it. Oh, and I have overtrimmed rosemary to death.
- Basil. We also have had good luck with Thai basil. The leaves aren’t especially scale, but, if you keep this trimmed, you can get a nice, woody “trunk” and main branches. Be sure to pinch the flowers off and to regularly thin the thing, or it will just look like a bush or, as ours did, fall over due to its own weight. Italian basil smells divine and tastes great, but it bears no resemblance to scale. It also brought slugs. No more Italian basil.
- Thyme. Thyme and again our thyme flourished then withered (Musical reference to offset bad pun.). We have tried English, French, lemon, dwarf, and dwarf elfin with the same result.
- Oregano. Spicy oregano will spread out as a ground cover, live a long time, withstand neglect, feet, toddlers, dogs, harvesting, you name it. Again, the leaves are not particularly scale.
- Arugula. Not a spice, but we planted it, and, by harvesting the lower leaves, got a credible “palm.” Who knew? Lasted about two years.
- Lavendar. Dwarf lavender makes a nice, scale bush, but lacks the smell of its big cousins. Its big cousins also have not lasted as long.
- Dill. Grew once and never again. Didn’t really serve a good scenic niche for us, either.
- Parsley. We have used both Chinese and regular with much the same experiences as dill.
- Cilantro. Same as above.
- The pond. Lots of stuff you can eat can grow here! Most water lilies have edible components (hasu in Japanese cooking); our dwarf lily has struggled too much to harvest it, however. We thought about growing kalo (wetland taro), but that thing is a monster and WAY to big for our guppy pit! There are a number of submersed and “wet foot” plants that are edible. You’ll have to do your own research.
I hope the sacrifice of many a good plant to the stove and to my black thumb has served a point!
Eric
Spicy Globe basil makes a wonderfully shaped tree and very fragrant. I have several scattered on the layout.
Well… FINALLY we are underway
Just planted Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Decided to name this location Scarborough Fair Junction.