Ina Paarman loves using herbs in her cooking and her herb garden reflects that passion.

A culinary herb wheel can be a small, simple ‘backyard’ herb garden or it can be scaled up into a magnificent potager, complete with central water feature, and raised beds planted with herbs, vegetables and flowers.

It is no surprise that Ina Paarman, whose popular cookbooks and gourmet food range has made her a household name, has created such a potager.  It occupies pride of place in her 5.5 acre garden that overlooks the Constantia vineyards.

This garden is not for show. It is a test garden where Ina experiments with herbs to find the right taste for new salad dressings and sauces.

A recent glut of brinjals prompted her to create a recipe for brinjal lasagna while a test crop of several different basil varieties included the new Basil ‘Aristotle’, a tasty, small leaved sweet basil that doubles up as a garnish.

A herb garden for the senses

Working with food, says Ina, means engaging all the senses and that has to be true of her herb garden as well.

The wagon wheel herb garden was created 10 months ago, replacing a previous herb garden that had failed to thrive in the poor, often waterlogged soil. Besides being functional, with raised beds for better drainage and no back-aching bending, Ina wanted a herb garden that was beautiful, fragrant, delicious, and full of texture and colour. The result speaks for itself.

The formal design is a wheel within a square with raised built beds and retaining wall.  A beautiful fountain forms the hub of the wheel with rosemary planted around it. A rill of water runs straight through the garden, links with the fountain and flows out the other side where it cascades down as a waterfall.

Pathways of crushed gravel radiate from the hub, forming the spokes. The built beds form the wedges between the spoke. They are filled with an abundance of healthy vegetables and herbs, with splashes of colourful flowers. Lavender is planted on the inside of the retaining wall enclosing the garden. Two bay trees mark the entrance.

Ina is delighted with her garden, getting great pleasure from its restful atmosphere. With a full season’s growth behind it, the garden has proved to be practical, and maintains its appearance, even when some plants go over.

Ina’s favourite herbs

• Basil (BasilicumOcimum) features strongly in the summer garden. A favoured combination is tomatoes (grown against obelisks) basil ‘Dark Opal’, basil “Aristotle’ and sweet basil. Chillies are planted at the head of each bed and silvery leaved artichokes occupy the rest of the space.

• Lemon thyme (Thymus vulgaris x citriodorus) is an essential culinary herb, having a softer, lemon flavour than garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris). Being low growing it is planted at the edge of the raised beds and is grown as a companion for brinjals, green peppers and squashes.

• Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a favourite herb for winter dishes, especially pork. It needs very well drained soil and its flowers attract bees.

• Coriander (Coriandrumsativum) is a quick growing annual with feathery leaves and strong sage taste with citrus overtones. The leaves are eaten fresh or added at the end of cooking, especially to Thai inspired dishes.

• Parsley (Petroselinumcrispum) is grown extensively in the garden, alongside a variety of salad vegetables. It is valued for its nutritional properties, mainly vitamins A and C and the fact that aphids do not like it.

Other herbs include clipped bushes of pineapple sage, with their lovely red flowers, borage, bay, rosemary, lavender, and sorrel

The basics

Location - The herb garden occupies the sunniest spot Ina’s garden. The steeply sloping ground was leveled by cutting a platform into the slope.

Soil - The raised beds were filled with a fertile mix of top soil, sand, mushroom compost, and rotted kraal manure. Bonemeal is added when planting. Pine bark mulch covers the surface.

Feeding – Beds are enriched regularly with homemade compost.  Plants are fed weekly with Nitrosol and Kelpak, a plant tonic that stimulates growth. Bounce back is applied twice a year.

Pests – are managed through companion planting as well as with Ludwig’s Insect Spray (organic), which has only a 24 hour waiting period before harvesting.

Companion planting – herbs and veggies are planted together to enhance each other’s flavour. Aromatic herbs, such as lavender, repel pests. Marigolds keep nematodes away. Borage is planted as a soil conditioner.

Maintenance – is carried out by a team of four gardeners, headed by Shaun Isaacs, with horticulturalist Nikki de Lange, who visits the garden twice a month.

Make your own wagon wheel herb garden

The built structure of Ina’s herb wheel requires plenty of space but a smaller version can still accommodate plenty of herbs.

• Mark out a circle on the ground, using a length of string equal to the radius of the bed. Shorten the string and mark out an inner circle.
• Measure out equal points on the circumference to form the spokes.
• According to the marked areas, dig a small foundation and fill it with sand.
• Set in the bricks to make the raised beds. The height need only be two bricks.
• Fill the six sections of the wheel with a mix of top soil, compost and sand.
• Plant a tall herb or use a pot or water feature in the centre (hub.)
• Use medium to low growing herbs for a balanced effect.

For recipes visit www.paarman.co.za.