Herb Gardens for Wildlife

I've found a couple of reassuring (and purpose-affirming!) projects lately, and thought the links might be useful to other organic gardeners with similar numbers of landscape uses to balance.

First of all, the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) offers this article about the wildlife value that can be included in planned herb gardens with floral borders -- which is exactly what we want to cultivate at Woodburn.

Also, I was skimming through May's issue of Southern Living (since Megan and I are currently dog-sitting for one of our coworkers and she left us her garden magazines) when I was suddenly arrested by a gorgeous spread showing a formal garden yielding to a wild wetland yielding to an agricultural field.

The article was about Virginia's Kendale Farm, an 1830s-1880s farm house on the Rappahannock which boasts a splendid formal garden with a curving walkway based on Monticello's, and persists as a working farm growing three major crops, and is a National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat (there was even a sidebar in the magazine about the four requirements of food, water, shelter, and places to raise young), and presents educational opportunities (the owners have an arrangement with local schools to allow student wetland exploration).

It's incredibly heartening to see a landscape that successfully incorporates a historical home, functional agriculture, pesticide-free gardening for wildlife, edible landscaping, formal gardening in the English Enlightenment mode, native grasses, a cut-flower garden, and educational space -- in such a heartstoppingly gorgeous and seamless way.

Pick up May's issue of Southern Living if you can, or I've found a few pictures you can browse online.  Here is a writeup in the county's historical home listing with a gorgeous sketch of the home; here is a post on the landscape designer's company blog; here is a photo album on the landscape designer's Facebook page.

And as for me, I'm going to keep those links in my Firefox toolbar to remind myself that what we're attempting on such a small scale at Woodburn is not only possible, but incredibly beautiful when done right.