The west side of the herb bed is devoted to tulips, irises, pink sea grass, a large Rosemary bush, and several types of lavender. Munstead, spiked and English lavender will follow the French which is blooming now. Each year I harvest all the lavender, and cut it down on all sides with an electric shear. It doesn't look very good for a while, but by May begins to have a free-flowing shape again.
Purple Ruffles Basil
The east side of the herb bed is devoted to hyssops, corsican mint, several varieties of thyme (english, lemon, silver and moss). The purple bloomn you see spilling over the rock onto the walkway is thyme. There is also purple ruffles basil, pineapple sage, globe and cuban oregano, and room each year for a couple pepper plants and one tomato plant. There is also usually chives, and dill. I grow majoram, parsley, more dill and garlic in other beds. Garlic and Egyptian onions sometime occupy this bed, too.
I have re-made this bed countless times. At first I tried for an English knot garden effect, which was difficult to do in an off-shaped figure-8 bed. So I went for circles of herbs. By trial and error, I learned that santolina grows much faster and taller than thyme, so made two rings of thyme only. I won't go into all the things I tried! I ended up with an oval pattern on one side of the bed, and free-flowing herbs and vegetables on the other side.
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