While the backyard is all about vegetables I wanted our front garden to more decorative but at the same time I didn't want to just grow flowers. Our friends Jen and Andy remade their front yard last summer so I was eager to check out their yard for ideas. Jen is a trained naturopathic nutritionist who has taken classes in herbalism and she has planted their yard with a wonderful array of flowering medicinal and culinary herbs.
Jen was even sweet enough to split some of her plants for my front yard. Since we both have front yards with full sun we know what is growing well for her will likely thrive in my yard too! I came home with some of her St. John's Wort, two kinds of Bergamot (a gorgeous red and another in purple) and some Anise-Hyssop. I'm really looking forward to the Bergamots as they'll give up that classic Earl Grey tea scent when you brush by them in the garden and the flowers are amazing!
Then Jen offered to take me to one of her favourite places, Richters Herbs. Richters operates a huge catalogue business but also has greenhouses and a store open to the public about an hour north east of Toronto. With sunshine and blue skies today was perfect for our road trip. So with classic rock blaring and the wind in our hair we set off in Jen's ride for my virgin Richters experience!
Arriving at the Mecca of herbs:
You just grab a box and get going (my only complaint is that these boxes only hold about 8 or 9 plants and who could get away with that few plants?):
I cannot explain the smell of this greenhouse, the heat of the greenhouse makes it even more intense - like aromatherapy on steroids. The main greenhouse is arranged alphabetically with hundreds of varieties of herbs. Lavenders alone take up half a row and there are tens of different varieties of sage, thyme and mint:
Here's the fantastic Jen shopping. Those big black tubs to the right of her contain pineapple sage. Which smell just like pineapple candy and flower with a red flower in the autumn. We both had to get one:
In addition to every herb you could imagine there are also greenhouses full of heirloom vegetable seedlings, succulents, flowers and some rare and wonderful things for the truly adventurous gardener like these fig trees (which sadly need a greenhouse so we just admired them):
I just planted some borage seeds in my tomato garden (borage is a good companion plant to tomatoes) but they had some huge pots of them that I was drooling over. How gorgeous are these? I can't wait until mine sprout:
Once we were done exploring the greenhouses we racked our boxes before checking out so we could poke around the store. I made out like a bandit. In addition to the pineapple sage I got two types of creeping thyme, Broadleaf Thyme, Spanish Lavender, Big Pink Sage, Cuban Oregano, a Black Hollyhock and as an experiment an artichoke! It is the only annual I purchased and I figure I'll only get one artichoke out of it all season but as a member of the thistle family they are an interesting looking plant in a decorative garden and they have huge purple flowers:
The store has a ton of great things; garden supplies, mushroom growing kits, garden decor items, soaps and products made from herbs, herbal tinctures and a ton of dried herbs:
And if that isn't enough there is a whole wall of seeds:
If you're wanting a nice drive out of the city or to get some interesting things for your garden I highly recommend a trip to Richters soon. You won't be disappointed and the aromatherapy treatment of the greenhouse is almost worth it alone. If you don't live in the GTA then be sure to request a catalogue or visit their website.
*Jen and I don't work for Richters and I didn't get anything for free for writing about them - they're just an awesome Canadian business and I can't wait to go back!
