The paths that bisected the garden into four parts were paved with slabs of concrete. These slabs were spaced 10 cm (4 inches) apart. This encouraged a luxuriant growth of creeping thyme, but it also caught the shoes of many a visitor. The garden's side paths were mown grass. Grass is never very practical in an herb garden, since many herbs flop over onto the paths and grass tends to invade the herb beds. After the garden was made over the the National Trust and attracted more visitors, the mown paths couldn't be maintained, even when the grass was replaced every year, and the concrete pavers were felt to be unsafe, so it was decided to pave the main paths with York Stone and the side paths with brick, as shown in the photograph below.
The earlier concrete slabs had been almost covered with a carpet of creeping thyme. This gave the garden a very romantic atmosphere, and the plants release a wonderful scent when stepped upon. Creeping thyme will tolerate light foot traffic, but once the garden became popular with the public, the plants were damaged by too many feet. The decision to re-pave all of the paths did change the character of the garden, but what the Herb Garden lost in romance, it gained in structure. The pavements, which were laid in the early 1970's following the advice of Vata and Harold's son Nigel, play such an important role in the garden's design that it is difficult to imagine how the garden looked before.
A large stone bowl that is supported by lions stands at the center of the garden. The Nicolsons found this relic of Byzantium in Turkey and brought it back to England in 1914. The bowl was planted with thyme, but the plants languished in the shallow planter. The gardeners tried planting saffron (Crocus sativus) among the thyme, thinking that it would flourish in the hot conditions that the bowl provides; apparently the conditions were less than ideal because the bulbs produced leaves but never flowered. In 1959, the decision was made to replace the thyme with sempervivums (houseleeks, also known as hen-and-chicks). These did well, but visitors kept taking individual rosettes, so the gardeners had to keep replacements on hand to fill the gaps. In 1994, the gardeners gave up fighting the damage done by theft, but I am not sure what herbs are currently being grown in the bowl. The top of this bowl can be seen in the photograph below, at the bottom of the walk which leads out to the moat.
