You can check out the Lemon Verbena Lady at her bloghttp://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com.
I am not much of a video game player, but I have been given the opportunity to test drive The Herb Companion’s new feature on its website: the Herb Garden Planner. I’M OFFICIALLY ADDICTED! I do live with a retired architect (The Herbal Husband) and he drew a very nice plan of my renovated 2003 herb garden.
This is Herbal Husband’s original plan of my herb garden, which was sketched in 2003.
Photo by Nancy Heraud
The plan shows my pencil additions of all of the herbs planted in the first season. There were 45 varieties! (I do get carried away with my herbs.)
Honestly, The Herbal Husband can put his tracing paper and pencils away, because the Herb Garden Planner is really a great and easy way to plan your gardens. I would say there are enough choices to get you started. If you are like me and a collector of herb plants, there could be a lot more choices added to the mix. I have been adding new varieties to my choices as I have worked on my plan. Here is a photo of my garden toward the end of the 2010 season.
I’m using the Herb Garden Planner to redesign this garden.
Photo by Nancy Heraud
It was a little wilder this past season and hopefully, once I actually take away my excess garlic chives and angelica, it will be a more calm and serene herb garden.
You get 30 days free to try it out and trust me I think you will enjoy using the Herb Garden Planner. It gives you a newsletter with great information for your gardening area and e-mail alerts when you can start seeds of various plants or plant your garden for the season. It is very easy to sign up. To get started you need to set up an account with an e-mail address and password. I would definitely watch the tutorial videos on the first page of the Herb Garden Planner. It will help you with ideas on how to draw your garden. You need a zipcode or address to get your frost dates and if you know that they are different, you can change and save your choices. If you are replicating an existing garden, you need to have measurements. Even if you are planning a new garden, you will need to have some kind of measurements.
You can see my translation of that garden by Herb Garden Planner to the right.
This is a first stab at it and I am very pleased with the results. I need to work on my numbers and plant additions and placements. I have a lot more plants to place! I have just scratched the surface of the tools available with the Herb Garden Planner. I had used the solid block of color on both patio areas. I then decided that using a different color line rather than the solid block was the way to go for the patio spaces to conserve ink. The next time we meet, I will hopefully have my next version, which will have better measurements and more plants placed. It is going to be fun getting that next version!
You have to remember that an herb garden or any garden is a changing experience. That is what I love most about gardening. It is not static; it is ever changing. A friend once said to me if you are finished with your garden, you need to move. Hopefully, the Herb Garden Planner will give you the help you need to design, maintain and enjoy your herb, vegetable or flower gardens and eliminate the need to move!
If you have herb questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or e-mail me at lemonverbenalady@hotmail.com. Talk to you soon.
