My Quadrant Herb Garden
by Derek Fell
My father was one of the great chefs of Europe, trained aboard the Cunard Cruise Line, and he instilled in me a liking for good food at an early age, showing how the addition of a particular herb as a garnish or vinaigrette could significantly improve a bland meal.
One of the easiest garden spaces to design and implement is a quadrant herb garden whereby you take a square space, divide it into four more squares by intersecting paths and plant the spaces with culinary herbs. In the Colonial Era the quadrant garden was the most common design and often served as a combination herb/vegetable garden with two of the squares planted with useful herbs like basil, parsley, chives, tarragon, rosemary, sage, dill, oregano, lavender and mint, and two devoted to vegetables. One of the vegetable squares could contain cool season plants like lettuce, spinach and peas; the other devoted to warm season plants like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
At Cedaridge Farm we have a quadrant garden entirely devoted to herbs, and what a pleasure it is to go out to the garden gather a selection of tasty herbs – such as chives, parsley, basil and dill—for a healthy breakfast omelet. We consider chives such an important culinary herb for its mild onion flavor, it is planted as an edging along the paths; and since we use parsley at almost every meal as a flavor enhancer to vegetable staples like mashed potatoes and zucchini, we edge the outside boundaries with it, each forming a low hedge. An advantage of growing chives is that it is perennial and can stay in place from one season to the next.
To finish reading about herb gardens, turn to page 48 in the winter issue of Bucks county Magazine.