a new herb garden

As plans for a redesigned veggie patch take hold, I've realised I'll need to start a new herb garden. The existing one, in what was one of the old veg 'beds', has actually been one of my few successes. Mint, lemon balm, chives, shallots, sage, oregano, thyme ... for a couple of years now there's always been something to throw in the cooking, toss over a salad, or brew into a tea.

This looks like the best site - or half of it - the area behind the pizza oven, backed by trellis that now has two apples growing ready to be espaliered against it. Have started with moving a few mint runners (top), planting them into a couple of inches of soil and mushroom compost layered over newspaper in an area where water should drain out from the planter via a small scoria-filled drain.

This will put the herbs even closer to the house, with easy access through it, and to and from the back door. It keeps it beside the clothes line, which always proved handy for monitoring both - laundry while picking; herbs while hanging. Lemon thyme (at front, above) and prostrate rosemary (below) and have survived here for several years, despite periodic trimming by rabbits and smothering by weeds.

There are varied positions in this small area to suit diverse plants - some more shaded, some more exposed, some over thin soil, some over deep - and they can be positioned to add some protection to the apple planters, shading them in summer and autumn from afternoon sun. Some, such as chives, might help deter aphids from the apples.

So Step 1 will be to continue moving plants or cuttings from existing bed, and Step 2 will be to consider new herbs (or perennial veg) worth adding. Will also pot up cuttings as a reserve supply and/or to give away.