60Minute Makover (without the help of Mr Andre)

I have had a lot of fun over the last few days bringing back some semblance of order to the chaos that is the veggie garden. When we first built the vegetable area I had this romantic view of how the herb garden should look.

Rustic - old sleeper borders, terracotta bricks with spaces left for the herbs to grow in an orderly, dignified manner. Trouble is, herbs don't do orderly or dignified. The stronger took over the spaces inhabited by the more genteel and had fun weaving through the bricks too. It became a maintenance nightmare.

Now I'm all for allowing Mother Nature to find her own balance but I am seriously not interested in putting oregano and mint in everything I cook. And even the oregano couldn't out invade the weeds.

Next solution - pull up the bricks to make the weeding and maintenance easier. The stacked bricks added to the rustic feel too. So now I could contain the herbs better by digging out rampant root systems. The herbs were learning to get along and respect each other's space. Only trouble was, the weeds called 'party time', rang up their mates and seriously over grew my pretty rustic patch. It was rustic alright - like an ancient, overgrown ruin is rustic.

So to the makeover. Herbs potted, rustic bed dug out and filled with pebbles. So the rustic bed now loooks even more rustic with sleepers, stacked bricks and stones - rustic x rustic (rustic squared perhaps?) The herbs will sit in their pots and behave themselves. The monstrous overgrown mint has been replanted in a part of the garden that will welcome its overbearing personality. And the weeds? Well if they manage to grow throuh the black plastic and up through a thick layer of pebbles, I'll have the garden fork at the ready!

Hopefully this will be its last makeover and the herbs can live harmoniously in their separate apartments. It will be a bit like living in a gated community designed to keep out the riff raff. Come on weeds! You have plenty of other places to strut your stuff. I don't know what part you play in Mother Nature's plan. She must have been having an off day.