High altitude herb garden

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 446, 28 July 1992, Page 8

High altitude herb garden

Our gardening seems still to be more in the planning than the action stage, the ground being too cold and wet to plant anything but the more robust plants. I can think of no better way of spending a cold, wet, winter evening than sitting by a nice fire planning a new area of the garden or a re-model of an existing one. I know of several young gardeners anxious to create a herb garden, a natural oasis both pleasant and practical which can be achieved quite easily and inexpensively if a little thought is given to the planning of the area and you grow some of your own plants from seed and beg cuttings from your friends. Choose a sheltered position for your garden with well drained soil and one which receives plenty of morning sun. If drainage is a problem build up the level of the soil to about 30cm above ground level. Dig over the plot thoroughly breaking up any large clumps of earth and incorporating some well rotted compost or animal manure. If neither of these are available to you a good dressing of blood and bone will be sufficient. Add a dressing of

lime or dolomite lime (which breaks down more quickly) as most herbs prefer a slightly alkaline soil. Leave an area free of lime for plants such as parsley and the mints which prefer an acid soil. Rake the soil to a very fine tilth and it is ready for planting. Some of the herbs in general use are annuals, which in this area are best grown from fresh seed each year. These include coriander, sweet basil, chervil and summer savoury. A packet of seed will probably supply sufficient plants for your culinary needs and if one or two plants are left to go to seed, the seed when ripe can be collected and stored for planting the following year. * Biennials are the plants which will flower, drop their seed and the original plant will die away having performed their duty and shedding the seed to grow the next season. Angelica, carraway and parsley are all biennials and by allowing one plant to go to seed and to perform its

natural function, fresh plants will be assured for the next season. Perennials are the plants which will die down at the end of the growing season sending up new shoots in the spring. The clumps usually increase in size from year to year and can be divided up to make fresh clumps. Bergamot, oreganum, comfrey, chives and lemon balm are a few of the many perennials. Herbs which are frost tender and can only be grown in this area during the warmer summer months. These include sweet basil, marjoram, the scented geraniums and pineapple sage although the latter may shoot again in the spring if the roots can be totally protected from frost. The scented geraniums can be lifted and stored in a frost free position for the winter. Lavenders and thymes, which will winter over quite well, need cutting back in the spring to prevent straggly growth. Larger growing plants such as bergamot, hyssop, balm of gilead,

lemon balm and feverfew can grow quite large and are best sited in an area of their own to prevent the lower growing plants being over-crowded and robbed of sunlight. Some of these have most attractive flowers but if you don't want tiny seedling plants of hyssop or balm of gilead merrily growing away in the rose bed, trim off the flowers before they drop their seed. Rosemary and the lavenders can grow into quite sizeable bushes as will common sage and will need the room to grow. Remember not to plant your mint and parsley too close to one another, they can't bear each other's company. Have fun and if you care to learn more about this fascinating subject invest in a copy of one of the many books on the subject. The Herb Garden Displayed by Gillian Painter and Elaine Power is a very comprehensive manual superbly illustrated and quite a useful little book is Herbs in New Zealand, by Heather Skelton.