Her family-run organic<\/a> farm in south Gloucestershire has evolved over the years, but the latest incarnation of the farm includes a brand new, and rather exciting offering: the new Herb Garden. While the Herbetum was created in 2013 to display medicinal and culinary herbs, Jekka\u2019s Herb Garden will take that one step further and allow visitors a chance to see just how herbs can work in their own gardens. The cumulation of a year of work, the Herb Garden will undoubtedly be a visitor attraction when it officially opens later in the year.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a chance to catch it in full bloom at Jekka\u2019s HerbFest<\/a> which runs from Friday 30 June to Sunday 2 July this year. We\u2019ll be there, but in the meantime, here\u2019s a little more about this remarkable project.<\/p>\n Could you explain the idea behind the Herb Garden?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Herb Garden is an accumulation of everything I have learnt over the last 40 years. We\u2019re changing the way the farm is run: we started off wholesale, then we did wholesale and shows, then we just did shows, then we did mail order and shows, then just mail order, then we had open days. Over the years we\u2019ve evolved how the farm has run and now we have reached another moment where people really want information about how to plant their garden at home.<\/a> We want to give them a visual plan, so they can take that away and go: \u2018I could do that in my space\u2019. So the main principle of the garden is teaching about how herbs<\/a> can be used. I want to make sure I can pass on the knowledge that I\u2019ve gained over the last 40 years.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s being laid out with quite a specific design, could you talk through that?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s designed on the figure 8, which is the figure of infinity. When you are in a low mood, walking in a circle can help, because you don\u2019t have to make a decision, you just look at your feet and go. So that\u2019s why we chose that shape. Within the circles we have oval beds which are the petals of a flower, and each petal is a different planting group, so culinary, medicinal and evergreen<\/a> herbs, a bed for herbal infusions and a UK native herb bed, too. I am very aware how our flora and fauna have changed over the time I\u2019ve been running the farm, the same with our birds and bees. In between the petals we have a gravel garden. With climate change<\/a>, a lot of my Mediterranean<\/a> herbs don\u2019t like the deluge of rain we get, so by growing them in gravel you are protecting them. I wanted to show how gravel<\/a> can be incorporated into a design.<\/p>\n Has it been a lot of planning and thought? <\/strong><\/p>\n It will have taken us just over a year to actually pull it all together. We had to change the nursery so we could accommodate it.<\/p>\n How many herbs will be in the garden?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not sure \u2013 we will be able to tell you when we\u2019ve done it. There will be things like thymes and oreganos going in the gravel gardens, but I also have a row of pomegranates I have raised myself and some big specimen plants I got when I was doing shows. It will show you herbs that you don\u2019t normally see as well.<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/18\/2023\/03\/JHG-Planting-Feb-8-7832011.jpg?quality=90&resize=578%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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