Chelsea 2003
Herb Society Garden
A Feast of Herbs

Silver Medal Winning Chelsea Garden

Designer: Cheryl Waller of the Herb Society
Contractor: Mike Pearson, Chipping Norton , Tel 01608 642 394
Sponsor: Marlow Foods Ltd, Station Road, Stokesley, North Yorkshire TS9 7AB, Tel 01642 717 187

The following are picture of the garden including the visit by Anthea Turner

The public certainly related well to the garden as this picture shows. This picture was taken on the last day but crowds like this were there most of the time. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Feast of Herbs

Some plants to look out for in The Herb Society's Chelsea garden, called by it's designer, Cheryl Waller, the "Feast of Herbs", - as the name implies, they are all edible. But what can they be used for, here are just a few of those featured, with a few of their uses:

Most people know that chives can be chopped into a salad, but what about some of the others?

Angelica - traditional for cake decoration as candied pieces
Bergamot - popular in America to brew Oswego Tea. Chamomile - traditional calming tea
Dill - Brings flavour to pickles. Fennel can bring an anise flavour to fish, chicken and pork
Lavender - One of the traditional ingredients of 'Herbes de Provence'
Lemon Balm - Makes a restoring tea, and flavours soft cheeses. Marjoram - Used in 'bouquet garni' and for savoury meat dishes
Meadowsweet - The historic flavouring for mead. Peppermint - distinctive flavoured tea that can also aid digestion
Nasturtium - Puts a peppery kick into salads
Prostrate Rosemary - grows low but just as good for flavouring chicken
Sage tricolour - a colourful way of bringing the key stuffing herb to a garden
Summer Savoury - the classic flavouring of Italian sausages. Sweet Cicely - Used to sweeten fruit dishes and bring contrast to salads
Thymes - the garden's range of low growing Thymes can all be used for flavour.

Roger Tabor

More details of the garden and a full list of plants

Click here to go to a large picture of the garden and pictures of different parts of the garden, together with a list of all the plants.

Rebuilding the Garden at Sulgrave

Work in progress in early August 2003

The original garden plans produced by Cheryl Waller

Note that some details of this design changed before the event

All the herbs used in this garden are primarily be for culinary purposes. The 'wild' herb area though is to encourage the beneficial wildlife into the garden. Being an organic herb garden, there is a decorative 'Beehive' compost bin. To help feed the herbs, a 'comfrey' barrel is also included (into which comfrey leaves and water are placed to ferment into a brown liquid feed).

The raised area has timber edging and infilled with gravel. All the rest of the paths are brick and infilled with gravel, except the centre feature which is surrounded by stone paving.

The dry stone walling is infilled with vareous materials, creating different colours and textures.

Thyme seat is made from recycled wooden joists with slate backs. Three varieties of Thymes are used for the seat. Placed on the arms are two pots of dwarf bergamot. The middle slate is engraved with the words "Here bloweth Thyme and Bergamot."