Herb spiral update

The herb spiral is an area that I think of as a separate entitiy, rather than just tagged onto the side of the veggie garden.  On my big shopping expedition I discovered some lovely little herb pots.  Two of my stepsons are forever asking me for herbs, and I give them little pots of basil, or parsley, and then when I ask how they are doing I am told of disaster befalling those poor plants, every time......  Mostly from overwatering.  My thought was that in these pots it would be hard to overwater them, and I could give them a large selection all in one container....

  Firstly some stones went into the bottom to aid with drainage. The pots were then filled with some potting soil amended with 5 in 1, blood and bone and crusher dust.  The plants were added and I will keep them until the plants are well established.  I am really dissapointed though with how the colour is peeling off the top of the one pot.  I should have got the plain terracotta colour to begin with.
 The idea of these pots seems similar to a herb spiral. I planted a few of the same herbs into a pot which is alongside the herb spiral.   Since they are more mediterranean type herbs I can control the moisture going to them.  The mint is also in a separate pot, but that is because it needs more water, not less!

The entire bottom level of my herb spiral  is now devoted to flowers.  This is one of the few spots in my garden that gets good afternoon sunlight. The other one is fruit salad alley. I threw out quite a few zinnia seeds - they are always so cheerful, and I will intersperse it with some basil - I think they should be nice companions.  On the side are the gerberas, and they have been nicely trimmed and mulched.  Yes there is also a paw paw volunteer - it can stay there for the moment until I decide what to do with it.  It might move to fruit salad alley....

 The rosemary which was doing so well is now looking a little straggly, so I trimmed it back well and have planted out a few slips in various pots. It was doing fine in the pot - in fact it was growing roots right out the bottom so I thought it would do fine in the ground. There are some little seedlings coming up around the rosemary but silly me I forgot to label what I planted, so will have to see what it is when it comes up. They look suspiciously like more parsley so I guess I am going to be well stocked with parsley.  The perrenial coriander and mother of herbs was cut back to allow for some basil and I think soon this area is going to be looking nice and lush once again.   Look at my little parsley plants coming up in the besa bricks.  Arent they cute?

 When I was trimming back the heleconias last weekend I found a sexy pink lady flowering so brought it inside so we could enjoy it.  They last so well in a vase, and this way I can admire it more than right at the back of the garden where nobody can see it.