Wagon Wheel Herb Garden

This weekend we were fortunate enough to be able to attend the Spring Planting Festival at Baker Creek Seed Co. in Mansfield, MO. There were so many booths with fragrant herbs and tons of varieties of tomatoes and peppers. Not to even mention the flowers! It was difficult to decide what exactly it was we needed to bring home! Luckily I had a good idea of what I was wanting for my veggie and herb garden.

After looking online at herbs that would grow well here in Arkansas, I decided that I wanted to put in a perennial herb garden. There are several kinds of herbs that will overwinter here and can be enjoyed year after year.

I decided on four kinds of herbs that I use the most:

1. Lavender
2. Sage
3. Oregano
4. Rosemary (a specially hardy variety - Hill Hardy)

In the other two spokes, I transplanted some dill and lemon basil that I had started from seed earlier this year.  They aren't perennial, but I didn't want to leave the two spokes empty!

One of the problems with herbs, especially ones that are perennial, is that they can become invasive. So where to put them? Not in my butterfly garden or vegetable garden or in the middle of my yard! Also, they dont really like to be watered much or put in rich soil or fertilized. They need full sun and need to be planted in the ground because the soil in containers wouldn't be insulating enough for the plant's roots in the winter. So we decided on making another raised bed just for the herbs. This one we did not use railroad ties, though, we bought an old iron wagon wheel from a local flea market for cheap!

Thus the wagon wheel satisfied our needs; good drainage, not-so-great soil, room to spread without restraint, plus it has the added bonus of looking pretty cool in the yard!