Getting the Herb Garden built this first year was very important to me. I had a very productive herb garden at my house in Aurora (which the new owner immediately tore out!); all my herbs were living in pots at Jackie’s house, and the Herb Garden was to be the central anchoring point of the entire rear garden. So after putting in the driveway in June, we set to work on the Herb Garden in July. Bless my husband for his diligence and love.
Of course he did get to play with another piece of heavy equipment. After deciding that there was no way to dig the footings by hand, we rented an auger. Brian had soo much fun!
We designed the structure so it would sit around the septic tank lids and hide them. The east/west walkway covers the tank lids. When the tanks need to be drained, the walkway comes up so the septic service can access the tank lids and do their stinky thing.
Outer structure
The posts are 2′ into the ground and 6′ above ground. There are 3 levels of 6″ 2×6 to make the sides. The structure is divided into 4 planting beds by two walkways, which run east-west and south-north. (The east-west walkway hides the tank lids.)
Chicken wire keeps underground predators out, and once the picket fencing was up and painted, we stapled more chicken wire to the inside of the frame to keep rabbits out. 3″ of gravel was laid down under the walkways for additional drainage.
There are four doors for entering the garden, one in each of the four cardinal directions. I later painted them in the four elemental colors to match, yellow-east, red-south, blue-west and green-north. Brian put a lot of time and engineering into building this structure. I wanted it to be 8 sided to represent the wheel of the year,
and I wanted 4 garden sections. I also wanted the 4 gates so that entry into the garden from any side of the garden would make it easier to work in. I did as much as I could. I helped with the concrete pouring, holding boards while they were drilled and/or bolted together, and I put down the walkways. Then of course, 18″ of rich garden soil had to be brought in. Voila!
