Gardens of mythic proportions...

I spent a lovely morning at a place about a half hour away called RavenCroft Garden. It is a beautiful spot with gardens, a store, and animals... They have all kinds of programs where they teach growing, harvesting and using herbs, among other things - their focus being 'health from the ground up'. Physical, emotional, spiritual...


The grounds are green, verdant and prolific. They aim for permaculture - to be self-sustaining. To that end they have and utilize goats, rabbits, ducks and chickens. Lots of fertilizer and composting. Lots of perennials, and seed harvesting.


My favorite 'feature' was their "Labyrinth Garden". Pathways laid out in a labyrinth pattern with a huge variety of herbs planted inbetween - from towering angelica, flowering monardo to compact hyssop.


It reminded me of one described in a YA fantasy novel by Midori Snyder called "Hannah's Garden". In the book, the garden was large and spiral shaped, filled with medicinal herbs, pathways and statuary - and in this case, there was a 'door to faery' in the very central of the spiral. :-) Nice feature, but even without that, it is an extremely compelling idea.


I've even drawn one out in one of my gardening sketchbooks... Awaiting enough real, physical space to justify planting one of my own....


It was so inspiring that when I got home, I trotted out back and picked a salad for dinner: a number of different types of lettuces and greens (spinach, arugula, sorrel, salad burnett, oak leaf lettuce, butter crunch, baby bok choy, cilantro, arugula blossoms and mustard flowers and strawberries...) Toss a handful of slivered almonds on top - and *sigh*, one of my favorite early summer dishes....