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.