The original plant installed around the sundial bed was the species yarrow that I added for ferny softness, as the raised edging was just the thing to contain this wild spreader. Because the area only receives 3-4 hours of full sun, the yarrow barely grows and still leaves some space for others. This year I installed some lemon grass for tasty summer height, patchouli for romance, and St. John's wort for fun, in case anyone needs some natural-prozac tea - but they could go plant a garden instead! The tiny wort leaves carpet the exposed soil nicely between the other plants. Bits of the yarrow still feather through and the tall stems in the old photo on the Seasons page are yarrow flower scapes which are cut back in summer. A little larkspur and perrilla usually manage to self-sow if there is bare earth showing in spring. If there was more sun, I would probably just grow oregano there (taking advantage of the contained bed) with a taller companion to one side such as the lemon grass. Those two rampant growers could just fight it out, as the present mix does now. I think putting a wide variety of herbs in a small-contained bed is just another version of pot culture, except the roots can develop deeper into the ground, demanding less water.
Think your 2nd question is about the wall-trained tree. Let me know if I misunderstood. It is an espaliered pear begun from a single trunk that arrived in a 5-gallon pot - a birthday present from my sister. This is a 'Bartlett' variety, although a semi-dwarf would be better for training in a smaller space. An Asian pear is being groomed on the adjoining fence for cross-pollination. Should be covering them in 'Come Stroll' soon as they are presently loaded with fruit and bird nests! Espalier training was popular in early walled gardens of Europe to save space within potager food plots and to take advantage of winter-sun warmth, retained overnight in the bricks. Peach, plum, apricot, cherry, gooseberry, apple and others were traditionally grown this way. Thomas Jefferson trained apple trees into 'rail fencing' around his veggies and the feature is now beautifully restored at Monticello. The upcoming article of my Virtual Tour of English Gardens will have some additional design samples among the photos.
I originally began with two hybrid rose standards in the herb beds (they were on sale and I fell for it), but the modern blooms were too large for the bed's scale and the vintage theme of a parterre. And too, even though there was a lot less shade then, the hybrids were just not happy there. The present standard-trained roses in the Seasons photo are 'Cecile Brunner's that I grew from cuttings in order to have sturdier non-grafted plants. Cecile is often known as the 'the Sweetheart Rose' and is extremely easy to root. She is also a good candidate for sculpting because she grows so quickly - if you mess up, you can fix it next week … well maybe next month. Cecile has the most delicious fragrance for such a little bloom and her bud has the appearance of a tiny hybrid tea. One draw back is that most of her bloom stalks stick up wild above the globe shape and 'naturalize' the tidiness until deadheaded, but I don't mind since she is otherwise so sweet. We have been working on some close-up photo pages of my roses and others for maybe next month's posting. In the meantime, here is a peek at the sweetheart.
These two Cecile bushes have some miles on them. The pot-trained cuttings were first planted into here:
Cecile's Baby Picture before being moved into the herb beds. As we speak, Larry is just now finishing some programming on a search engine for this site, to help visitors find specific references to my ramblings.
Thanks for asking Gail, I enjoyed answering and wish you much fun in restoring your herbal parterre!
Maggie