Monday, September 17, 2012

The Herbal Tea Garden: Considerations

   When my farm girl approached us with the notion for her own herbal garden she didn't just come at us on a whim, she took the time to plan, ponder, and consider the commitment and the function of such and endeavor.
   Time: Gardens don't grow themselves, they require time and work. At the time of her plans she was a home school student with time to work the garden. Currently she is a college student and swim instructor..this change in availability had to be considered when the garden was amended this spring.
   Size:  Dependent upon availability of space in the yard, the time to be invested...our tea garden is quite large..spanning the front of our house in a cottage style lay out that takes you from our front door to our first pasture fence.
Function: Is this culinary, medicinal, tea...is it meant for beauty? What beneficials will be attracted or deterred? Her garden desire was to incorporate all aspects of the garden in a natural, yet welcoming fashion similar to the master gardener version. Bees and butterflies were wanted and welcomed..as were the many varieties of herbs available to grow here in our climate.
Future: Knowing she was an upper high school student, the future had to be considered. Did we want to take over care of the garden when she was no longer here to do it? In undertaking such a large garden plot, the future tenders needed to be considered.
   Our farm girl's herbal plot has been up and functional for several years now; a thing of beauty and refreshment. While her time between the rows is not as much as she would like, we are all grateful she took the initiative when she had the availability to design it and put it in place.
   Tomorrow, our farm girl's how-to makes a debut here on the blog!

1 comment:

hanna said...

This is very true, gardening is not just a simple task. Knowing everything from scratch is the best thing and a major studies and planning is required to be successful. Knowing each aspects is a key factor and this what I applied when I plan having agarden full of tulsi or better known as Holy Basil. It took me a lot of time and thinking to succeed on this one.