Designing a Silver Herb Moon Garden with Artemisias and More

Long regarded as a romantic symbol, the moon can illuminate a garden with a gentle glow casting a spell not possible in bright sunshine. Lunar rays, associated with fertility, birth, and planting, bathe the earth when the moon is full. Moonlight is even more dramatic when reflected from the muted tones of silver and gray herb plants, such as the Artemisias, clustered together in their own special herb garden. These herbs too are of ancient folk-renown, speaking of magic, medicines, and midsummer nights. The wise herb gardener knows how to use moonbeams and herbs together for maximum effect.

Mass Plantings of Silver-leaved Herbs are Best

Designing a moon garden can be a simple project or a more ambitious undertaking. Sizes range from a small plot of one square yard to a more expansive border or even a whole back yard. But mass groupings where silver-gray herbs, fragrant and eye-appealing, are growing shoulder-to-shoulder have a more spectacular effect than an arrangement of single plants dispersed throughout the flower beds.

Silver, or gray, leaved plants appear that way, instead of the more common green, due to many tiny hairs on the leaf surface which protect the plant from searing sun and dry conditions. Because of this, gray-leaved plants are better able to survive drought conditions. They flourish in desert areas and in hot, dry areas of the home garden.

Essential elements in the design of this special moonbeam-friendly herb garden are site selection and preparation, choice of plants, and added artistic touches.

Select the Best Site for Flourishing Herbs and Optimal Magic

Choose a site that’s in a sunny and well-drained location. Shady gardens, although lovely in their own right, aren’t the place for silver-gray plants. And if the site is sunny, then it will be open to the light of the moon as well.

Amend the soil if necessary by adding some gritty sand. This will make the soil resemble the preferred growing conditions of these silvery-gray plants – not moist deep loam, but sparse and gravelly spots resembling their native habitats.

Any site, however small, can be improved by the addition of nature’s all-purpose landscape wonder – stones. River stones or limestone (especially if it has textured ridges) are ideal, as is the always majestic granite. The stones can be used as edging, as accents, or as mulch to prevent the spattering of unsightly mud on silver leaves.

Garden Pots and Patio Planters Make Mini Moon Gardens

Mini moon gardens may also be created in garden pots or patio planters. Good drainage, obtained by using a gritty planting mix, is crucial, as is a sunny location. The focal point in a large planter could be a tall herb such as mullein, while a trailing herb such as thyme, which will spill over the side, adds appeal. Artemisias such as Silver King or Silver Mound make excellent filler plants.

Choose Light-reflecting Silver-leaved Herbs for the Moon Garden

Browse the local garden center or an online herb nursery for some silver-leaved ornamental herbs such as:

• Artemisia (Artemisia sp) These species include Wormwood, Silver King, Sweet Annie, and Silver Mound. Named after Artemis, the Greek Goddess of the Hunt and the Moon, Artemisia species alone could fill a moon garden.
• Silver Thyme (Thymus vulgaris ssp) This small aromatic accent or edging plant has a delightful fragrance.
• Woolly Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantia) This friendly plant’s furry leaves are a favorite of children.
• Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) Here’s a dramatic, tall herb with thick velvety leaves that’s best at the back of a planting. Its stalk was used in Roman times as torches or candles; in medieval times it was believed used by witches.
• Sage (Salvia officinalis) Its gray pebbly leaves provide texture and a savory seasoning. According to folklore, if used in quantity it renders a man immortal.

There are many more silver-leaved herbs to consider. See More Gray-leaved Herbs for a Silver Themed Herbal Moon Garden to learn about wormwood, santolina, lavender, yarrow, southernwood and curryplant.

Add to the Herbal Magic with an Artistic Touch

Even the smallest of gardens should have a focal point to draw the eye in the way an artist does with a painting.

Any one of these could take center stage in a moon garden:

• A white bird bath
• A silver-gray upright evergreen (juniper is good)
• A glass globe
• A pedestal-based urn
• A dramatic landscaping stone

Folklore of the Moon and of Herbs Blend in this Herb Garden

Under the night sky, moon gardens glow and shimmer. But even better, they combine the mystery and folklore of two ancient sources of wonder, herbs and the Earth’s lunar companion, into a place of herbal magic.

Reference:

Lust, John B. The Herb Book. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1987.