In former times, Apothecary gardens were conductors of Botanical knowledge and gave rise to Botanical gardens, which appeared in the XVIII century. Many admired not only their healing power, but also the extraordinary beauty. In former times, the Apothecary garden was a fenced garden for growing medicinal plants, fragrant herbs and flowers, vegetables, shrubs. Much says that the fashion for Apothecary gardens is back again.
Try and you create in your garden herbalist, using to start the historical, proven for centuries scheme. Magic drawings, on which people tried to insulate themselves from sin and of evil, a modern almost unlimited assortment of medicinal, aromatic, spicy-flavoring plants and your own imagination will help create in garden old new miracle.
Regular Apothecary flower garden almost always looks a win-win, if you clearly mark the lines of the geometric pattern. As a border, you can use Vaccinium vitis idaea, Hyssopus officinalis, Lavandula, Alchemilla vulgaris or divide the elements of the flower garden in height with low retaining walls. Get beds of different heights and shapes, which are built together in a clear scheme.
An example of a regular-style Apothecary garden; numbers on the diagram indicate:
1-Verbascum densiflorum;
2-Lophanthus anisatus;
3 – Inula helenium;
4 – Nepeta cataria;
5-Tanacetum balsamita;
6-Leonurus cardiaca;
7-Oenothera biennis + Agrimonia eupatoria;
8-Platycodon grandiflorus + Cynoglossum officinale;
9-Salvia officinalis;
10-Arnica foliosa Nutt + Calendula officinalis.
However, the eclecticism of the medicinal flower garden can be different. Supporters of the natural style, probably, will try to place Apothecary plants so as to create an imitation of a dry meadow or a shady forest corner. In the first case, we select Althaea, Tanacetum, Leonurus, Salvia, Digitalis, Cynoglossum, and in the second – Valeriana officinalis, Inula, Symphytum, Asarum. Plants can be planted on the principle of a mixborder, trying not to grind the group, so that it was convenient to prepare medicinal raw materials.
You can complicate the task and create a coloristic Apothecary garden: contrast, monochrome or tint. Among the medicinal plants there are a lot of flowering in yellow-orange, blue-blue and purple-pink range. An example of a contrasting combination of medicinal plants of yellow-orange and blue-purple flowering spectrum is shown in figure 1.
Removing the blue-purple part, we get a monochrome yellow medicinal garden, which would look good Alchemilla vulgaris and Rubia tinctorum (by the way, it is her drugs that can destroy kidney stones). By planting Rubia tinctorum next to Verbascum densiflorum, we will provide support for the climbing stem.
To create a “shade” version of the herbalist, it is interesting to use purple-purple-pink combinations of plants: Althaea officinalis, Origanum vulgare, Nepeta cataria, Lophanthus anisatus, Monarda didyma, Digitalis purpurea, Leonurus cardiaca, Salvia officinalis, Scutellaria baicalensis, Echinacea purpurea.
Another example of a regular-style Apothecary garden; numbers on the diagram indicate:
1-Codonopsis lanceolata;
2-Salvia officinalis;
3-Hyssopus officinalis;
4-Origanum vulgare;
5-Echinacea purpurea;
6-Monarda didyma;
7-Scutellaria baicalensis;
8-Hierochloe odorata;
9-Lithospermum erythrorhizon Siebold et Zucc;
10-Althaea officinalis.
You can change the style of the Apothecary garden, giving it an exotic look. To do this, rare, unusual plants are included in the assortment. It could be Panax ginseng. Height 80 cm, with palm-complex 40-centimeter leaves on purple petioles, with bright red bones of fruits – what is not exotic?
The place for ginseng should be selected with special care. It should be penumbra with a certain humidity and temperature of air and soil, without sharp fluctuations. Suitable conditions are formed under the canopy of deciduous trees. If you do not have such trees on the site, you can build an original canopy, which will be both a small architectural form, a “castle” for the king of medicinal plants. Decorated in this way, the group of ginseng can become the center of the composition or be located independently.
Another equally interesting exotic – Codonopsis lanceolata-Liana up to 4 m tall with bell-shaped greenish-white flowers. The idea of creating arched passages entwined with Codonopsis lanceolata in the garden with healing beds looks tempting.
But whatever the flight of our imagination, the device Apothecary garden must take into account several points.
- To determine from the very beginning, why it is created: only for beauty or for practical purposes. This will depend on the density of planting, peaks of decorative, agricultural technology.
- It is necessary to know what parts of the plant and at what time should be harvested to take measures to maintain the attractiveness of the site.
- Do not use medicinal plants without consulting a doctor.
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