Our herb spirals are the heart of our garden and the basis of most of the cooking we do. There is nothing better than smelling the aroma of fresh herbs cooking.
When planting my herb spirals i prefer to use perennials, and leave the annual herbs for pots or raised beds. I do this because two of our spirals are at the very entrance to our garden, which allows them to be the first bit of green you can see once winter is over.
The first step to building an herb spiral is deciding what you are going to make the actual spiral out of. As you can see I have built ours out of a dry stacked field stone. This was choice was made out of convenience and ascetics. When we bought the house there was a fairly sizable pile of stone in the back, and the house foundation is a fieldstone foundation. I have seen spirals built with stone like i have, brick, even using pieces of logs. The choice is entirely up to you.
The next thing to consider is size and placement. Because I built mine by dry stacking stone I had, I was limited to the amount of materials I had at the time. So our first herb spiral ended up being around 5 foot in diameter, and around a foot and a half tall. It started around 2 foot tall, but after everything settled during its first season it ended up around a foot and a half. This is the specs I have built all of mine to since then and it has worked well.
You want the herb spiral to be in a sunny location, full sun works best as many herbs originate from a Mediterranean climate. The base of the spiral should be facing south as you can see below.
First mark out the area where the spiral is going to be and the curve of the spiral itself. (note it helps to build the structure in the fall this way it has time to settle before planting) next gather the materials you are using for the structure itself and slowly start working them around the spiral you have marked out. If your using stone set the larger stones on the bottom of the structure and leave the smaller ones for filling in large gaps and for the top. The less gaps there are the less the structure will settle over time.
As you build the spiral slowly increase the height of the structure so the the center is the highest. If you are building one with the dry stacked stone like I did it will help to fill the center with a gravel. This will do two things, one allow the plants in the center to have better drainage which will be important later on, and two it will reinforce the interior of the stone and help you stack it.
Once the structure is built fill it the structure with potting soil. this is where it is nice to have built it in the fall. Once filled with potting soil you can let it settle over the winter and touch up the structure and add soil as necessary in the spring. If you build one in the spring it will still work however, the settling over the season may cause it to look a bit lobsided. Just adjust it at the end of your growing season for the next year.
While I haven’t noticed any herbs being to picky about the placement in a herb spiral. there are a few things to keep in mind.
You want to put the herbs that grow the tallest or need the least sunlight in the back (the north side).I have normal and garlic chives planted here. If I have any open space I will transplant basil here as well.
The lowest point of the spiral is for things that like more water, like lovage or tarragon. Which are both fantastic herbs to grow. The top is reserved for the herbs that want the least amount of water. This is where using gravel to help support the structure helps with the drainage for things like rosemary, curry, oregano, and thyme.
Once planted all you have to do is water, and harvest your own fresh herbs.
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