As I was dropping off to sleep last night, I began thinking about my herb garden on the shady side of the house. (Isn't this what everyone does in bed at night?) There are several problems with this garden. First off, as I said, this is the shady side of the house, which means these plants only get late afternoon sun. While my rosemary has done marvelously well (I'm convinced rosemary is impossible to kill), nothing else has really succeeded there. One year, many years ago, I planted basil. It did alright, but nothing like my basil is doing in the planter on the deck filled with moisture control soil and watered regularly.
The second problem with that side of the house is the soil. Most of the ground around our house is red clay below the topsoil. I've dug down a little ways and tilled up the ground, but not very deep and it's been years since I've added any good soil to that little plot.
Thirdly, I always forget to water on that side of the house. I don't know why, but those things fight for their lives every summer. I guess it's because I really never get around to that side of the house. I'm always on the deck and we walk right past my box garden to get to the car, so I see the progress and the plants drooping, if they're dry. But I never seem to wander past my herb garden.
With this in mind, I dropped the kids off at school this morning, then unlocked the shed, pulled out my tools, and got to work. I had decided, in the wee hours of the morning, to transplant my Greek Oregano, which was the only other thing still alive in my herb garden (other than the rosemary bush/tree), into a planter on the deck with the rest of this year's herbs. I already have basil, which I've harvested for the first time, dill that looks better than anything I've ever been able to grow in the fern department and which I've also harvested once already, mint, and parsley. Why not add a little oregano? I had a nice square box planter that I had bought several years ago and put mint in, but it was too shallow-rooted and I left it on the shady side of the house, thus, it never got watered and promptly died. So the nice, square planter (the matching one now holds my parsley and mint) was full of twigs.
I went around to the side of the house, planning on emptying it out, punching holes in the sides for drainage, filling it 1/3 full with drainage rocks, then 2/3 with good soil mixed with fertilizer, and - voila! A perfect recipe for great oregano. But, as I rounded the corner of the shed, I discovered I had already put the square planter to use holding bushes that my neighbor was having replaced. I had already planted 9 of them across the front of the deck to make a hedge, but I had several more in the planter waiting to be put in the ground. I sighed. Can't use the planter until I do something with those bushes.
But where to put the bushes? I had originally asked my neighbor and friend, Jane, if I could have them because we want to put in a patio at the back of the yard and surround it with a nice hedge, leaving a large opening to walk in and out of. But it occurred to me that if I planted the bushes, it would make building the patio much more difficult because we'd have to work in a confined space, taking care not to trample the bushes. I finally settled on planting them down one side of where I would like the patio - the beginnings of my hedge. Maybe that will also help get us moving on actually doing it.
I dug several holed, which turned out to be a bigger job than I realized. That area is underneath the only shade tree we have in our yard, which is why it's the perfect place for a patio. But there were so many roots, I had to take after them with a pick-ax. I finally got my holes dug, filled them most of the way with good soil and mulch, then picked out the nicest bushes. Once they were planted, I put dirt back on top of the soil/mulch mixture, tapping with my foot to secure them. After a good watering, I was finally ready to get started on my planned project, the replanting of the oregano. It had only taken me two hours or so to get ready.
The oregano is now on the deck in the square box planter. And I built a little platform out of bricks around the pot that contains my dill. Part of the reason I believe my dill is doing so well is that I've covered it with a deck chair (sounds crazy, I know) which creates a terrarium atmosphere for it. I mist it with cool water, then place the chair over top of it so as the day heats up, the water will condense on the underside of the chair and drop back down on the dill. A guy at Lowe's suggested this to me (not the chair part, just covering the dill somehow to create a misting field). The chair's perfect because it doesn't conduct heat and it has a hole in the back, which I've strategically placed over the dill, so rainwater will drain down onto the plant. But the chair was too low and the dill was being forced to grow sideways, out past the chair. My new platform raises the chair just enough to still keep the terrarium-effect while giving the plant a little more room to grow.
I'm exhausted, but still have a few more chores I want to do in the yard. And I NEED to get at least some of my new garden planted.
Maybe . . .
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