Designing a Moon Garden

The following is an excerpt from the May/June 2003 Essential Herbal Magazine:

Designing a Moon Garden
Michele Brown
www.possumcreekherb.com

What could be more relaxing than coming home from work after a long hot commute, changing into comfy clothes and taking a walk through the garden? Nothing to see, you say? Well, that’s where you’re mistaken. Many herbs and flowers lend themselves beautifully to an evening or moon garden. Night blooming vines, silvery textured herbs and sweet scented pale or white blooming flowers perform and perfume wonderfully under the moonlight.

Many nighttime blooming flowers are white for a reason. Not only are they gorgeous to look at but they provide food for night pollinating insects such as the sphinx moth which flutter throughout the garden collecting nectar. Illuminated only by moonlight or even starlight, pale flowers and foliage lend a magical quality to the garden.

Imagine a small space edged with rocks, bricks or steel edging shaped in a crescent moon shape. It doesn’t have to be large. It can be a garden within a garden or in a corner between two structures. Fill your garden with a pleasing layout of white and pale night-blooming flowers and silvery herbs. Place a pathway through the garden if it is wide. A bench or chair would be idea as well.

There are many flowers and herbs that would shine in a moon garden. This list is just to get you started. Moon Vine is perfect for winding around a trellis or archway. It has a wonderfully sweet scent and large white blooms. Lavender has gray foliage and purple scented blooms. Lamb’s Ears are low growing with velvety silver leaves. These will spread rapidly throughout the season. Plant them in clumps of 3 or 5 for a natural look. Thyme, especially Silver Thyme, lends a spot of color and a spicy scent throughout the garden. Plant them near the edge of the garden so visitors can brush past it releasing its scent. Flowering Tobacco and Jasmine are both sweetly scented white blooming plants. Flowering Tobacco is easily started from seed while Jasmine should be purchased as a plant. Jasmine blooms during the day as well and its blooms are a wonderful addition to teas and punches. Southernwood adds a wispy, mystical touch to the garden as well. Add some white Sonata Cosmos throughout the garden for that perfect touch.
May/June 2003 Essential Herbal Magazine