March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Herbs are best in their own garden. The closer you can locate this to the kitchen the better - when you want a sprig of mint or couple of herbs for a "rainy day stew," you'll find you just won't want to bother getting in the herbs if they're located too far away.
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The wheel garden is made with a heavy wagon wheel. The herbs planted in it should not be too tall growing or the effect of the division by the spokes will be lost. After obtaining a suitable wheel, select a sunny spot on level ground or a gentle slope. Mark around wheel, then dig out the center for hub - the rim should set on the ground. Fill spaces between herbs with sandy loam. If any of the spaces are to be filled with mints, stick plates of metal - old license plates or sheet iron - around the boundary of the mint to prevent it creeping into adjacent beds. Although you can plant most any herbs in this wheel bed, the lower growing varieties make an especially pleasant pattern: parsley, chives, garden thyme, orange or apple mints, lungwort, dietary of crete, thrift, dead nettle - and such annuals as dwarf basil, sweet marjoram, chervil, summer savory, coriander.
Some Easy-to-Grow Herbs
ANISE: 75 days. Annual. 8 inches. Always grow from seed, don't transplant. Uses: fresh leaves in salad and as a garnish. Good with fish. Seeds: in bread, cake, stew, soups, candy. Medicinal: tea.
BASIL: Sweet: 85 days. Annual 1 to 1 1/2 feet. Germinates easily in 4 or 5 days - if tops are pinched off plants will bush. Spacing: 15 inches for regular - 6 inches dwarf varieties. In harvesting, when buds appear use both leaves and buds, cut part way to ground for a second crop. Uses: in soups, meat, some salads. Tie in bunches, dry in sun, store.BORAGE: 80 days. Annual (self-sowing). 1 1/2 feet. Blue flowers attract bees. Should not be transplanted. Uses: tender leaves are used in salads and to flavor lemonade and other cool drinks, cooked, in pickles. Flower is candied for confection.
CARAWAY: 70 days. 1 1/2 to 2 feet. Biennial seed; planted one year for harvest the next. Plants to stand 8 inches apart. Cultivate first year. When seed clusters ripen second year, snip plants a foot above ground, dry on old cloth a few days, then thresh seeds by slapping with a small stick. Blow off chaff and store in a tight jar. Early ripening seeds may be planted to give a crop the next year. Uses: in breads, cakes. candies - cabbage, soup and salads, in Sauerkraut, goulash, baked apple.
