Dear Curiosity Journal,
Rufus, Annie, and I are designing and building an herb garden in front of the farmhouse. This transformation continues our vision of taking out lawn and replacing it with growing space to achieve less mowing and more diversity and abundance. Rufus has built semi-circle garden beds which follow the curve of the driveway from the sidewalk around the mock orange bush, where I have planted lemon balm, oregano, and echinacea. He also put up a wood and wire trellis system near the front door, where I have planted morning glories, black-eyed Susan vines, lavender, and asters. The intention is to grow a screen of flowering vines, which will shade the south-facing side of the house during the summer, as well as create a bit of privacy for a small sitting area. We have plans to plant more culinary and medicinal herbs and another splash of flowers into the remaining garden beds. I also started filling in the walking paths with a soft layer of sawdust to suppress the weeds, which is much preferable to wood chips for all of us who like to garden barefoot. I’m looking forward to seeing how this space develops over the season and watching this sweet little garden grow.
~Joy
