Herb and Vegetable Garden Design

The circle of lawn forms a transition from the geometry of the house and patio to the curving beds of rhododendrons. In a similar way, the elliptical herb garden forms a transition from the geometry of the garage and vegetable boxes to those same rhododendron beds. We rounded and twisted the traditional herb garden rectangle and diagonals. The curved gravel paths (and later interior passageways) are like those in the rest of the garden but on a smaller scale.

The herb and vegetable beds were raised with loam from digging out the paths. We added sand and humus to loosen the soil and placed perforated plastic pipe under all paths (as it was in the entire garden) to increase drainage. Posts for the grape and berry arbors have just been set. We later added countours, the interior paths, a few fruit trees, a kiwi arbor, furniture, and of course the herbs.

Year 1--1996