Knock Off the Old Knot Garden? NOT!

Author: Barbara M. Martin
Published on: May 23, 1997

Last week I wrote about informal herb garden design. If your idea of a “proper” herb garden is more formal, or if you lean toward a more symmetrical approach to design in general, you’ll prefer this week’s “recipe” for herb garden design. I suggest you use the time-tested and truly lovely knot garden concept as the BASIS for your design. The Museum of Garden History in London, by grace of the Tradescant Trust, brings us a fabulous example of a knot garden from Tudor Times! This is a replica of a seventeenth century knot garden, and it showcases plants from the era of the Tradescants -- kindred gardener souls from long ago.

Of course, you will need to adapt this motif to fit your own situation. For the sake of classic simplicity, I often suggest the four square design pattern, but any variation on the knot garden will do. It is infinitely adaptable to many, many shapes and forms. Here is a planting plan by The Cottage Garden. While for only half of a four square garden , I think it will show you the basic idea. (And it demonstrates the versatility of the concept!)

To put this in perspective, traditional herb garden design follows geometric lines and creates a strong visual statement by its structure alone. In a four-square garden, the paths and planting beds work together to form a pattern which is attractive through all seasons. The center provides a logical focal spot for a favorite ornament while the symmetrical regularity of the planting beds introduces a natural sense of balance and harmony to the design. A network of hedging and/or fencing may finish off the design.

In other words, the layout and architectural elements BECOME the design, the plants are mere ornaments.

Reducing the plants to mere incidental status is useful in an herb garden because a lot of the plants are -- well, weedy-looking.

Here is a photo from the lovely garden at the enchanting Egeskov Castle in Denmark, just to show you what I mean when I say herbs tend to be "higglety-looking plants." (And to explore the castle and the grounds further, here's The Map!)

Well, I’ve said it. It’s true. Herbs are often ugly. They’re disheveled and “higglety” plants. By that I mean they are often floppy. Most bloom for a short time and finish. They sprawl, they run and they go to seed. Most of them would be called weeds except that some clever person discovered they had special uses and thought they were worth growing in a centralized spot for the sake of convenience. Hence, the term herb “garden”.

All romance aside, to create a tidy, geometric framework for your herb garden, first decide on the basic outline of the area you have available, then use and repeat related geometric shapes and dimensions to delineate the paths and planting beds. (The four-square or four-rectangle approach simplifies this part of the process!) Here is a detailed description of The Knot Garden by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, -- a wonderful modern interpretation and application of this method!

Here is yet another consideration: Using raised beds will not only accentuate the design; it will also enable the gardener to accommodate the herbs’ individual cultural preferences -- important for reduced maintenance and optimum appearance! In any case, edge the planting beds neatly with whatever material you have at hand (or suit your taste!): bricks or boards or cobbles or sea shells or even terra cotta tiles or cedar shakes.

Then use a coordinated paving for the paths: carefully raked gravel, brick, cobbles, concrete step stones, grass, whatever pleases you and fits in with other materials used in your garden.

Now add a tidy short hedge or a fence to define the area. A picket style is traditional but by no means a requirement. If you are thinking "Williamsburg" (as in historic Williamsburg, Virginia) in terms of style here, you might enjoy this studious but fascinating Williamsburg Perspective on Colonial Gardens from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

In any case, for your overall theme, stick with a style and material and color related to or compatible with the style of your house or whatever other structures or over-riding features are in view.

Select the herb garden central feature or main focal point with care. It should have some height to it, at LEAST three or four feet. It might be a water feature (check my earlier water feature articles for easy and "doable" ideas), an original sculptural piece, a gazing ball, a traditional sun dial (in a bed of thyme of course!). You might select a topiary in an especially beautiful container: how about a venerable rosemary, a treasured bay tree or a well-tended rose or lantana standard ... all come to mind as possibilities. Just choose something you really like. It’s YOUR garden and it should reflect YOUR personality!

Next, and trust me on this, you need a comfy place to sit. You might like a bench . Use a material, style and scale in keeping with the fencing and overall size of the garden. What??? Sitting around instead of working frantically? Well, yes, probably. As long as you have chosen herbs appropriate to your climate and site and have prepared your soil with a little care, you won’t have a whole lot of work to do in the garden. Herbs are tough plants! (I said they were weedy, didn’t I?!)

So, sit back and enjoy! Harvest and eat or dry or freeze the bounty, sneak a few stray tastes, watch the butterflies, -- invite a friend to share the calm “feel”, the aromas, the subtle rhythms of seasonal change. Maybe you’ll need TWO benches!

Need some ideas on what to do with all these “useful” herbs now that you’ve grown them? Check back next week! I’ll have “real” recipes and everything!

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