The Culinary Section of the Western Reserve Herb Garden has a new addition. We have constructed and planted an Herb Spiral Garden. It is an experiment that could come under the topic of ‘Gardening in Small Spaces’ . Research and presentations from several sources including the Green Corp Director from Cleveland Botanical Gardens have been very informative and helpful.

An Herb Spiral is a spiral of bricks or rocks enclosing soil in which many varieties of herbs are planted. The bricks warms and dehumidifies the soil. The extended edge, wrapped in on itself, provides a wide diversity of conditions creating high productivity in a small space. The Scale is roughly one meter high with a circumference of two meters. This allows you to easily water from the top and reach all the plants from the outside.

Construction begins by gathering bricks or rocks. We used about 250 bricks which included some half bricks saved from our original Terrace Section. We used a dowel stick one meter in length to mark the center; tied a string one meter long to the dowel and marked the circumference. We then made our first layer of bricks by spiraling to the inside until we had completed three layers. As we wound the spiral, we filled the first spiral with gravel for drainage. You could also use small rocks or coarse sand. As we built up the layers, we continued to fill with soil and compost on all layers.

Planting the herbs can only begin after the spiral has been thoroughly watered and the soil has settled for several days. Herbs that prefer dry conditions go at the top, while herbs that preferred wetter conditions on the lower spiral. We planted a lovely rosemary at the top followed by lavender, sage and thyme. Several mints were planted on the bottom spiral.

Maintenance should be very easy. Watering is done from the top as weather dictates. We hope to harvest lots of herbs throughout the summer.

Our spiral will not be permanent as it is not part of the original design, but we hope it will bring lots of questions and proved educational in the 2 years we expect to have it.

For more information on this garden type, you may google herb spiral or access ’my urban gardener’ website that show diagrams, photos and directions for constructing Herb Spiral Garden. http://www.myurbangardener.com/herbspiral.html

 

Lou Ann Hanink
Herb Spiral Garden Coordinator