Gardening in Geneva

 Our house is typical for the area. Generally the tenants live in the house somewhere between three and five years. This means that even if the garden was well laid out originally, after about 25 years and perhaps 7 or 8 different families, it was looking a bit tired. 

This house has been rented by MrT's company since it was built and is in very good condition but the garden was just not looking good. There were some old, woody lavender bushes - one of which finally expired this winter, some mini-irises which look good for about 10 minutes before the flowers die and the spiky leaves are left, and some unidentified bushes. The only really decent plants are the two little trees (please do not ask me to identify them) and a sedum. 

Recently I attended a workshop on Gardening in Geneva and asked the Landscape Gardener who was running the course what she recommended. We are away a bit in the summer so the plants would have to be able to go without water for a few days at a time as I don't want to have to ask the neighbours to come over every day. She suggested a Mediterranean Herb Garden, using flowering herbs and lavender to bring in some colour. At home I made a plan and a list (of course) and we headed off to the garden centre to buy these plants:


 

Sage
Lavender
Rosmary
Thyme
Bay tree
Origano
Camomile
Boretsch
Satureja (Bohnenkraut, no idea what that is in English)
Parsley
Dill
Allium (otherwise known as garlic)
Basil



Next came the work of digging out the old plants, placing the new ones according to The Plan and The List. The kids helped with the mucky bit, PetitMonsieur was surprisingly effective at digging the deep roots out. Mademoiselle was Assistant Herb Gardner, responsible for Thyme, Parsley and Rosemary.

Hopefully once the seeds that were planted grow and the herbs spread a bit more the bed will look a bit less naked. And more like I want it to - this kind of thing Herb Garden

MrT and PetitMonsieur getting their hands dirty

MmeLindt finishing off the job

The finished bed

Will look better once the plants grow a bit. I hope.