my herb spiral and the bees - part 1

My garden would not be complete without an herb spiral. Some years ago, I designed a big one for an outdoor workshop in Brussels (Scheutbos, Molenbeek) and I immediately fell in love with it. An herb spiral is a beautiful summary of maximizing space and functions on a small scale. Creating a three dimensional structure in an organic shape is a nice implementation of the so-called edging technique as used in permaculture.  In addition, it is a structure beneficial for pollinators, giving food for people, and a good educational tool for both kids and adults ;-) I like to insert animal shelters and strawberries in mine as described in my model at the bottom of this post and as shown in these photos:

Solitary bee shelters inserted in the herb spiral (IBee design, 

Molenbeek)

Entrance of the hedgehog shelter and strawberries inserted in the herb spiral (IBee design, Molenbeek)

With a bit of luck and patience, one can find all the material nearby. I got my first load of stones from our kind neighbour who was cleaning up his garden. I found a flower pot and left overs from chicken wire in our shed and started piling up pieces of tiles, stones and some odd pebbles as my drainage layer. Once I find new material, I will continue building it. I would like to fill it up with my own compost, so you will have to be patient to see the photo of my finalized and then full grown herb spiral.

The basic layers of my future herb spiral with a bumble bee nest inserted, spring 2014

Here is how I did it:
1. a layer of cardboard or garden fabric to suppress weeds and grass.
2. draw (or use rope to outline) the shape of the spiral
3. first row of stones (bricks, stones, whatever you can use or reuse)
4. first layer of gravel stones, pieces of tiles, anything to make some drainage
5. insert bumble bee nest (and hedgehog nest if it is a big spiral) - this is the stage of the photo above
6. fill up with compost and mulch layers while creating a slope going up towards the middle of the spiral
7. on the way, insert solitary bees nests (made of branches of 20cm of different sizes or wood with holes drilled in it, or bricks with holes in) roofed with a tile (see photo at the top) and on the sunny (not windy or rainy) side
8. leave holes for plants to hang from the wall, like strawberries
10. plant herbs on correct position: moist lovers at bottom and those needing a dry spot on top
11. add a layer of bark chips or plant some cover plants to suppress weed both outside the spiral and on top of the soil in between the plants
12. add a little shallow pond at the bottom of the spiral

The bumble bee nest is rather easy to make: a flower pot turned upside down; gravel at the bottom; a piece of folded chicken wire on top and then some dry material like dried moss (or the nest material from an old mouse den, which bumble bees love); a 3 cm thick and approximately 20cm long piece of pipe going from underneath the pot upwards and sticking out of the spiral wall; some small pebbles and a roof on top of the flower pot to leave space for air and avoid rain coming in from the top. This whole nest will be covered with soil once the herb spiral is finished.

our future asparagus bed

I would love to try asparagus. I know it takes a few years before you can harvest the first ones, so I wanted to set things in motion. I will not have time to plant the first ones this spring, but at least I could prepare the spot for them.

Asparagus, source: wikipedia (and hopefully my own photo posted here in the future)

With a recycled wooden sandpit border, I created the future raised bed. To suppress the grass underneath, I put some recycled garden compost bags at the bottom. I think I will have to remove these bags and the wooden border once I start planting, because the asparagus need some depth and the border will attract too many slugs.

The recycled sandpit as temporary border for my future asparagus bed

I added some good soil, but I still need to find out which type of soil and (organic) supplements are needed for asparagus. In the meantime, I already sowed some recommended pioneer plants and future companions for our asparagus:

- nasturtium
- pot marigold
- white clover
- sunflowers

These four companions will prepare the ground until I have time to plant my first asparagus plants.

Flower mandala (see earlier post) with square asparagus bed on its northern side

Other good companions, which I might consider:
- yarrow
- parsley
- strawberries
- borage
- oregano
- lupine
- petunia

I read one should avoid allium, potatoes, and garlic in an asparagus bed.

sowing block and edging issue

I had been so much looking forward to sow all my precious gathered seeds according to my ambitious plan, but when I finally came to the summer house, I kept on postponing the sowing bit. I redesigned and reviewed the guild and flowerbeds, over and over again. I used silly arguments, like "it is not wet enough to sow", "too sunny", "too cold", "I am not ready" ... until there was no more time to postpone it any longer. We would leave the place and country in two days. 

I realized I had a something like a "sowing block", like you can have a writer's block? I was afraid to get those seeds out there. Afraid that I had chosen the wrong place for them, the wrong partners, the wrong time, or the wrong way of sowing.

European Peacock (Inachis io, dagpauwoog, dagpåfugleøje), Photo: ©Janus

When I finally realized, that my fear for doing things wrong was blocking me, I took a deep breath and time for a cup of coffee in the midst of the garden. I closed my eyes and imagined my dream garden. I saw a colorful garden filled with flowers, bees, and butterflies. A well designed garden with nice idyllic spots and details, but also a rather wild garden with a lot of spontaneity.  

Once I had this picture in my head, I relaxed. I knew it would be ok. I decided to take it bed by bed and took a tray with seeds needed one bed at a time. I just managed to do it all and felt so relieved at the end of the day that I had done it! From now on, it was up to nature to decide and I just would have to wait and see.


I also struggled with the edging bit. In permaculture, one should try to create a lot of edges because that is where things happen e.g. between ecosystems. In nature, one rarely finds straight lines and thus waves, spirals, curves are better designed to mimic real life out there. I myself also prefer organic shapes to straight and square ones. However, I did not feel happy with what I had done with this organic approach so far. I had designed and created some round shapes and a herb spiral as well as a bend curve in one of the paths, but that was it.

The paths between my trees were square and straight. The fact that I used rope to define my future paths and beds certainly had something to do with it. It was rather tricky to use some sticks or pieces of branches to pin the corners of the rope down in the grass. Making squares turned out to be much easier than making waves or curved lines. Since I had not enough wood or bark chips yet, I would need to have space enough to let a lawn mower pass on the grassy paths for the time being. Again, straight lines would be easier to maneuver. I decided that I would leave it the way it was and promised myself to reshape the beds with a bit more curving later on.

I guess both frustrations, learned me to look at the garden in a more progressive way. Nothing I do is final. I needed to look at it as a dynamic project and do things in steps adjusting things all the time. Patience and one step at a time...

Sunset Northern-Sjaelland, Photo:©IBee