We moved the herb bed today and I am done.

We moved our raised beds from on-the-ground to 100 gallon watering troughs in 2020. We had been fighting trees-of-heaven out of those beds for as long as we’d had the beds (around a decade) and were clearly not winning the fight. So, beds with bottoms seemed like a good idea.

They work well. There are some rocks leftover from the defunct labyrinth in the bottom to help take up some space. And lovely soil on top that gets topped off with compost fairly frequently. Some is homegrown and some is purchased. The 2 of us don’t make enough vegetable waste to do it all. the troughs have a drainage hole near the bottom, so they don’t flood.

Three of the troughs are Chuck’s and 2 are mine. I have asparagus in one and herbs in the other. He uses the others for whatever vegetables suit us. Tomatoes, beans, greens, sometimes okra.

I was able to dry enough herbs last summer to avoid using any bought this Fall. It will be interesting to see if I make it all the way through.

I have had chives in a pot outside for over a decade. It went in the ground today. We grow cilantro and basil in pots, reseeding as the season requires. There is rosemary in the back flower bed. My trough has parsley, sage, thyme and 2 types of oregano. I expect I’ll plant a little dill again this summer since it doesn’t appear to be perennial here.