I love lemon herbs. I love all lemon herbs, but I love lemon thyme the most. I also like common thyme and creeping thyme and well, just about any thyme you can imagine. I grow 17 different (grew, this past winter whittled them down to 12) varieties of thyme. About half the varieties have a lemon scent or flavor. I could not resist the opportunity to create a special bed for the thyme plants as a way of demonstrating how to craft a raised bed.
This thyme bed is located on the far left side of my garden patch. It receives full sun, all day!
Here is a diagram of the bed (I got this idea for describing my beds from Lemon Verbena Lady. She used this method to explain her garden rearrangement this year.)
1 9 6
2 4 7
3 5 8
1 French Thyme
2 German Thyme
3 Silver Thyme
4 Golden lemon thyme
5 Doone Valley Lemon thyme
6 English Thyme
7 Lemon thyme
8 Golden Thyme
9 Orange Thyme
To create the raised bed, I did not clear out the existing soil, level the ground, build a frame and fill it which is the traditional method for making raised beds. Instead I did the less-effort method. With this method, you just scoop the soil into a low hill crafting edges or toughs around the planting area. I even went so far as to plant the bed with thyme before I even constructed the raised bed.
To construct the raised bed I decided to use something easy to acquire and disposable. I choose willow branches. I collected them in the Spring, March I think. When the snow had melted and the winter drop from the willow trees was littering the ground. I collected a huge bundles of sticks trying for those that had varying thicknesses that were about 3 to 4 feet in length.
Using my hand trimmers I cut stakes from the larger branches. Placing them along the edges of the bed about 4 to 5 inches apart. I did not measure this. I used the distance between my extended pinky and thumb if you were flashing a "Hang 10" symbol. I wanted a spacing close enough to keep the sticks from flopping, but far enough so that I could actually weave the stems between the stakes without too much breakage.
To make the work easier, I laid several bundles of willow branches along each side so I could reach them as I went around the bed working the weave.
All you do is an alternate inside outside between the stakes.
I did opposite sides first. I have found it is easier to work the side weave into existing ends rather than working the weave from a corner position. With two ends (sides) completed, I have a stable place to work the side branches into at both ends which also allows me to use broken branches or those that are too short.
Here you can see the completed weaving. The sticks stick out the ends and will need to be trimmed as with the upright stakes. better to make the stakes to long and trim them off, that to have your branches pop over the top becasue the stake is too short. I did not trim the stakes until I placed the extra soil and top dressing in the raised bed. Then I trimmed the stkes becasue I was no longer pushing up agasint the weave.
Here is another angle on the completed weave. Notice there are now extra stakes in each of the corners. I placed one on the outside of each corner and on the inside. This created a bit more stability in the corners and kept any stray branches from wanting to pop out of the weave. If I have problems with the branches staying put (which i do not expect) I can tie these double up stakes with wire or raffia.
Here is a slightly better view of the extra corner stakes.
Once the stakes were all in place I put top soil into the bed to bring the soil level even with the outline of the woven fence. I then gave a top and side dressing of mushroom compost over the entire bed. This filled the space the woven fence created making the bed uniform and attractive. Axtra compost in a raised bed is important as you are generally adding soil . A nice cool compost like mushroom compsot is great for this.
Weeding Thyme is a pain in the butt. Grass, small leafy plants and other things get between the branches and it is like pulling out one blade of grass at a time when you have to weed, so a top dressing of dark rich compost also cuts down on the weeds and allows the bed to hold more moisture. Now I will not have to water this corner of the garden as often. (Which is good because the hose does not reach that far!)
Here is the finished bed:
After I crafted the raised bed, added the compost and soil and watered the bed well, I then gave all the thyme plants a hair cut. I harvested 1/2 of their height (I could have gone 3/4 but there would not have been much to photograph then...... They may look small now, but this trimming and the nourishing bed and they will become larger bushier plants in no time.
This thyme bed is located on the far left side of my garden patch. It receives full sun, all day!
Here is a diagram of the bed (I got this idea for describing my beds from Lemon Verbena Lady. She used this method to explain her garden rearrangement this year.)
1 9 6
2 4 7
3 5 8
1 French Thyme
2 German Thyme
3 Silver Thyme
4 Golden lemon thyme
5 Doone Valley Lemon thyme
6 English Thyme
7 Lemon thyme
8 Golden Thyme
9 Orange Thyme
To create the raised bed, I did not clear out the existing soil, level the ground, build a frame and fill it which is the traditional method for making raised beds. Instead I did the less-effort method. With this method, you just scoop the soil into a low hill crafting edges or toughs around the planting area. I even went so far as to plant the bed with thyme before I even constructed the raised bed.
To construct the raised bed I decided to use something easy to acquire and disposable. I choose willow branches. I collected them in the Spring, March I think. When the snow had melted and the winter drop from the willow trees was littering the ground. I collected a huge bundles of sticks trying for those that had varying thicknesses that were about 3 to 4 feet in length.
Using my hand trimmers I cut stakes from the larger branches. Placing them along the edges of the bed about 4 to 5 inches apart. I did not measure this. I used the distance between my extended pinky and thumb if you were flashing a "Hang 10" symbol. I wanted a spacing close enough to keep the sticks from flopping, but far enough so that I could actually weave the stems between the stakes without too much breakage.
To make the work easier, I laid several bundles of willow branches along each side so I could reach them as I went around the bed working the weave.
All you do is an alternate inside outside between the stakes.
Here you can see the completed weaving. The sticks stick out the ends and will need to be trimmed as with the upright stakes. better to make the stakes to long and trim them off, that to have your branches pop over the top becasue the stake is too short. I did not trim the stakes until I placed the extra soil and top dressing in the raised bed. Then I trimmed the stkes becasue I was no longer pushing up agasint the weave.
Here is another angle on the completed weave. Notice there are now extra stakes in each of the corners. I placed one on the outside of each corner and on the inside. This created a bit more stability in the corners and kept any stray branches from wanting to pop out of the weave. If I have problems with the branches staying put (which i do not expect) I can tie these double up stakes with wire or raffia.
Here is a slightly better view of the extra corner stakes.
 |
| notice the weeds among the thyme |
Once the stakes were all in place I put top soil into the bed to bring the soil level even with the outline of the woven fence. I then gave a top and side dressing of mushroom compost over the entire bed. This filled the space the woven fence created making the bed uniform and attractive. Axtra compost in a raised bed is important as you are generally adding soil . A nice cool compost like mushroom compsot is great for this.
Weeding Thyme is a pain in the butt. Grass, small leafy plants and other things get between the branches and it is like pulling out one blade of grass at a time when you have to weed, so a top dressing of dark rich compost also cuts down on the weeds and allows the bed to hold more moisture. Now I will not have to water this corner of the garden as often. (Which is good because the hose does not reach that far!)
Here is the finished bed:
After I crafted the raised bed, added the compost and soil and watered the bed well, I then gave all the thyme plants a hair cut. I harvested 1/2 of their height (I could have gone 3/4 but there would not have been much to photograph then...... They may look small now, but this trimming and the nourishing bed and they will become larger bushier plants in no time.
 |
| trimmed thyme |
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