Herb Garden
For centuries, herb gardens have been an essential household element. From medicines to seasonings to dyes for textiles, herbs have enhanced the daily lives of people worldwide. The concept—also known as a healing garden, kitchen garden, or cottage garden—is thought to have originated in medieval monasteries.
The Herb Garden’s classic beauty and layout showcases traditionally inspired plantings surrounding the ornamental sundial and knot gardens, as well as sections arranged according to the primary use of each herb. The collection features rare and unusual plants along with the familiar that provide food, flavorings, fragrances, teas, medicines, dyes, wine, beer, and liquors. Feel free to touch and smell those herbs that can be reached from the paths, but please don’t eat any part of them!
Collection Highlights
History
Developed in the late 1940s, the Herb Garden was inspired, designed, and planted by volunteer Elizabeth Rollins. In 1994, artisan Michael Bondi and his team crafted the beautiful bronze and nickel bridge crossing a small pond, where you can pause for a view of one of Berkeley’s few remaining natural springs, brimming with aquatic plants. Listen for the croak of the tiny Pacific chorus frogs that thrive in the pond and throughout the moist areas of the Garden. During warmer times of the year, the pond surface is completely obscured by common duckweed (Lemna minor) and Pacific mosquitofern (Azolla filiculoides).
The Herb Garden Sundial
This sundial was placed here to indicate standard time, not Daylight Savings Time. It is not precise to the minute, because these tools date from a time when mechanical precision was not required for daily life. A sundial connects both the garden and gardener intimately with nature and the changing seasons.
Banner image Asphodel (Asphodeline lutea) by Saxon Holt