Homestead Update: An Herbal Pathway (Plus a New Farm-hand!)

I mentioned last week that i’d been working on some aesthetic projects. I was so excited to finally add a proper entry way to our house and am now enjoying the lovely smell of lemon thyme every time i step through our hand-built gate (constructed entirely out of re-used wood salvaged from our roofing project).

I’ve always dreamed of creating an herbal walkway to welcome my guests with the aroma of chamomile, thyme and pennyroyal as they amble up to my door, through which they’ll smell baking bread or chicken soup that invites them to stay for dinner. Many a pinterest pin has been dedicated to the design of my herbal pathway though i’ve always known it would utilize materials i had on hand and feature stones brought with me all the way from my family house in Montauk, NY. I can’t wait until the thymes (sourced from the local nursery The Thyme Garden) spread out, which they’re already doing and the chamomile and pennyroyal pop up from seed. In the meantime the stones and old bricks (stones from a local mulch place, bricks were here at the house already) are appealing and have even stood up to a new refrigerator being trucked in!

To prepare for this walkway i removed the sod (and full disclosure: i did use glysophate to kill the grass) and scraped out a few inches of rock and dirt. I started by lining the path with the edge bricks, filling in the fun brick pattern in the center, planted the thymes and then backfilled pea gravel. This was a somewhat jerry rigged Miranda project – i SHOULD have laid sand down then the bricks then the pea gravel but i’m a scrimcoacher and didn’t have any ‘sand’ laying around!

In other news, we welcomed a new farm hand to the property yesterday! Welcome, Ebenezer Snooze!

More about Ebenezer next week. In the meantime, he’s happily pouncing in the hay in the barn being entertained by the buns in the rabbitry.