The garden is small and wildly inclined, so, rather than dive into the challenge, I did what you are always told to do with a garden: leave it be for a year to see what it does, what hidden gems (or otherwise) might lie temporarily unseen, waiting to spring forth.
Accordingly, I left the beds alone. Instead, I filled pots with compost and trowels of grit and planted herbs. I may not have grown any vegetables or fruit, but that rectangle near the back door made my summer and changed so many meals for the better.
It refreshed my belief that there is nothing better you can grow than herbs: they dress up the staples in delicious clothes, look beautiful, draw beneficial insects into your garden and for a large part—especially if you favour perennials—they are straightforward to care for.
Having sat on my hands and observed the wonderful and the less so appear, I will be creating a herb garden in the months ahead. I’ve done this many times for clients, but it’s been a while since I’ve done it for myself. This led me to ponder what I should choose. What have I learned over the decades of doing this?
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