Herb Spiral
The sun is shining, bulbs and blossoms blooming and the soil is thinking about warming up ready for spring planting. Wet weather is a good indicator of a well-designed system. Does water drain away easily? Are the paths high enough that feet don’t get too wet? Is the vegetable garden close enough that even in the rain one doesn’t get soaked picking some veges for dinner?
The same applies for herbs. We use them on a daily basis in cooking and drinks. For this reason it makes sense to have them close at hand, near the kitchen door. As for design, I’ve found the “permaculture” herb spiral a practical method of arranging my herbs.
1. Select a site close to the house in full sun.
2. Decide how big you want it to be. A diameter of 1.5 metres would be enough for most herbs and enable easy picking. Mark out with rope, hose or rocks.
3. Put cardboard down as a mulch if planting over lawn.
4. Fill the centre with old broken bricks, crockery or concrete, or rocks. Mound to at least 50cm high.
5. Cover with river or granite sand to about 10-20cm deep.
6. Then add 20-30cm topsoil over the mound.
7. Collect lots of rocks (at least 20cm in diameter), or bricks. Start placing them from the lowest point (if on a slope) or southern side in a clockwise formation, spiralling around the mound (leaving 20-30cm soil strip between the rock spiral) to the top.
8. Plant herbs (with some compost) around the spiral, allowing good space to grow. Start with rosemary at the top (it needs constant trimming to keep compact!), then other dry-loving herbs like the thymes, sage, tarragon, and chamomile. Follow with marjoram, oregano, savory, and chives. Finish with mint at the bottom where it’s more moist, but keep it contained!
9. Interplant with annual herbs like parsley, basil, coriander and dill. Allow these to self-seed and you’ll have an ongoing supply.
10. Keep your herb spiral well weeded and trim herbs to keep them healthy and under control.
11. Water from the top, and the spiral will take care of the rest.
12. Using this design means you can fit more herbs into a smaller space by going upwards!
Fruit care
Sow beneficial understorey annuals now into bare soil around fruit trees (NB Kings Seeds has mixes).
Plant comfrey and other beneficial herbs around the orchard.
Plant strawberries into well-prepared beds if you didn’t in autumn.
Spray stonefruit and pipfruit with cutonic copper vs bacterial diseases before and after bud burst, or use liquid seaweed as a tonic.
Also all-purpose oil or lime sulphur for scale insect on citrus.
Prune citrus as you harvest. Best to do heavy pruning now.
Apply fertilisers to fruits before spring growth, eg rock phosphate, lime, boron and wood ash.
Vegetable Care
Start sowing early crops (eg, tomatoes and peppers) in propagation house or cold frame.
Dig in green manures/crops or cut and mulch with black plastic for upcoming spring plantings.
Prepare ground for potatoes and other spring crops.
Chit potatoes and yams (oca) by putting in the light to encourage strong shoots.
Remove heavy mulches or weeds to improve soil warming on ground where you want to sow or plant early crops.
Lightly till bare ground to create a clean seedbed ready for sowing root crops.
Cloche for frost protection and soil warming. Plastic bottles work for individual seedlings too.
Liquid fertilise in the morning once a week, especially nitrogenous brews like diluted liquid manures and urine.
Weed beds, especially around alliums.
Mulch with seaweed or seagrass around brassicas, garlic, broad beans and greens.
Stay observant for pests and diseases, especially slugs and snails.
Plant Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb and asparagus into well-prepared beds.
Hothouse
Prepare propagation area for main sowing: eg make seed-raising mix, gather seed, etc.
Prepare beds for early hothouse crops like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers.
Complete a plan of garden cropping and spring rotation. Start a garden diary.
For transplanting: Leafy greens (summer spinach, silverbeet/chard, lettuce, endive, cabbages)(best 24th September). Broccoli and cauliflower (best 22nd September). Early sweet corn, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants (with bottom heat)(best 17th – 18th September). Flowers, eg scabious.
Sow direct: Mesclun salad, radish, spring onions, carrots and beetroot (under cloche), parsnip, kohlrabi and turnips (best 20th – 21st September). Peas and French beans (under cloche) (best 17th – 18th September). Flowers, eg coreopsis and sweet peas.
Plant: Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and early potatoes. Flowers eg, comfrey in orchard or by compost.
General Garden Care
Complete planting of trees and shrubs.
Make compost.
Mulch citrus with grass clippings.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
