The main function here is to provide plants that are tasty and aromatic but also look good and provide interest throughout the year.
The fig will create a focal point for the scheme and provide fruit for birds and wildlife, as well as yourself. The tall fennel will give the scheme an airy, see-through feel, but also produce edible seeds, roots and leaves.
The ground cover of herbs will give off an aromatic scent if brushed against, as well as helping to reduce moisture evaporation from the soil surface and suppress weed growth.
Using an organic mulch, preferably homemade compost, while the plants establish can help to provide the same benefits. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.
1 - Foeniculum vulgare ‘Giant Bronze’ is a robust, aromatic short-lived Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.
2 - Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’ is a large Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months.
3 - Salvia rosmarinus ‘Severn Sea’ is an evergreen shrub bearing aromatic, linear, dark green leaves, and bright blue, two-lipped flowers in clusters in spring and summer.
4 - Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’ is an aromatic, semi-evergreen dwarf shrub with purple young foliage and stems, becoming grey-green with maturity. It bears heads of purple-blue flowers in the summer.
5 - Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’ is a semi-evergreen sub-shrub forming a spreading clump of wiry stems bearing golden-green leaves and clusters of light pink tubular flowers from summer into the autumn.
6 - Salvia officinalis ‘Icterina’ is an evergreen dwarf sub-shrub with aromatic, grey-yellow Variegated means having leaves or other plant parts with streaks, blotches or patches of different colours. Typically, these would be a combination of two colours, such as green and gold or green and white.
7 - Thymus Coccineus Group is a low-growing, evergreen sub-shrub forming a carpet of very small, dark green, aromatic foliage with clusters of deep red flowers in summer