Tour of The Parterre Gardens

Tour of The Parterre Gardens

The culinary parterre garden at Mezzacello

Welcome to the Tour of The Parterre Gardens at Mezzacello. These gardens which run between the pond and the main house (see map) are formal on initial observation, but that formal boxwood parterre hides a deeper reality. Each of those triangles is a different soil structure and the boxwood provides shade shelter and a microclimate for delicate herbs and flowers.

An Old Idea Made New

The idea of a parterre knot garden is NOT a new idea. It dates back to Mesopotamia, Rome and medieval monastic gardens (see The Cloisters in NYC). What is new is the nature of the triangular gardens in the parterre. Each triangle is a different soil type with a barrier that prevents different herbs from growing out of their specific soil.

The parterre gardens at the Met’s Cloisters Garden in NYC

The boxwood serves another purpose other than creating a neat and tidy parterre knot. The boxwood protects the herbs from winds, cold, and allows tender herbs and flowers to grow well into January. This is a very nice feature that comes in handy on cold winter nights.

Culinary and Medicinal Parterres

Remember that three of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals deal with food, health, and innovation, and access to fresh food. This is a very important aspect of Mezzacello. We take our responsibility to and care for our health very seriously here, and you should as well.

Some of the parterre beds are poor soil. Some are sandy soil or Mediterranean soil. Others are rich and sweet with rich humus.

These triangles are designed to grow very specific herbs and flowers. All of these have either culinary or medicinal value. They are either used fresh, dried, or used in a tonic.

So what is the value of these parterre ecosystems?


Parterre Herb Garden Update 2022

Parterre Herb Garden Update 2022

I wanted to provide an insight on the parterre herb garden update 2022. The culinary parterre is a delight to see and smell! Harvesting is a delight and a chore.

On a Wednesday in August we harvested the chives, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, and savory. Then we harvested the mints, the lavender, yarrow, and the echinacea, chamomile, rose hips, and hibiscus. It was quite a haul.

Timing Is Everything

When you pull a full harvest, you must always be ready to prepare them. The herb porter I bought from Monticello works like a charm. The bag is set on the frame and has drain holes so water and air can move about.

I use both a dehydrator and air hanging to harvest the herbs. Both work equally well. But the dehydrator is faster. Air drying in the house is a really charming affair.

Preservation Tips

After everything is sufficiently dried, you must store them properly. I just use old spice bottles and new labels. The medicinal herbs I just store in boxes lined with parchment paper.

The worst thing one can do with herbs is to harvest and not be ready to preserve. I have lost herbs to rot because I was unready to preserve them. Just be ready to spend the two hours prepping the herbs to dry.


The Parterre Herbal Garden Microclimate

The Parterre Herbal Garden Microclimate

The Parterre Herbal Garden Microclimate
High summer lushness

The Parterre Herbal Garden Microclimate and it is its own ecosystem. The boxwood parterre is essential to the health of the herb garden. The height of the boxwood is the key to the success.

The soil beneath the parterre, the triangles between the lines of the parterre, is a permaculture installation. It is similar to the Hugelkultur installation I have in the formal gardens. The soil is amended with the lasagna garden compost/soil matrix.

Weed control is an issue with the parterre. I use mulch as it is really good at holding in moisture and I can grow more herbs efficiently. It is not as renewable, but it looks good.

Parterre Bush Height and Microclimate

The other role of the boxwood parterre is that it controls for sunlight and wind very well. The parterre triangles are always slightly cooler in summer and don’t suffer in winter. The shade also limits the amount of bolting in the herbs.

Bolting is my nemesis! I am still struggling to keep cilantro under control. I just have to find the right home for it. It is one of the only herbs I grow that is an annual.

Architectural Value

In addition to holding in the water when it rains, and offers tender herbs shade, the boxwoods serve three additional purposes.

  • The boxwood helps the herbs grow and bush well.
  • The boxwood keeps the pesky animals and cats out.
  • Visually, they are a delight.

Order Requires Destruction or Playing With Fire

Order Requires Destruction or Playing With Fire

It is a maxim central to the human and natural experience; Order requires destruction or playing with fire. I have regularly used a flamethrower to rid the yards of Mezzacello of grass rhizomes and weeds. This time I am also resetting the acidity and Ph.

Yin and Yang

Yin requires Yang. Not every time mind you, but often enough that it is a central tenant of literature and culture. In this case, we created parterre garden beds with the intention of adding a boxwood knot garden and a simple beneficial herbs garden at Mezzacello.

Over the winter – even with a layer of acid promoting pine mulch – a forest of clover had sprung up in the parterre. Not a big deal. Clover sets nitrogen from the atmosphere, so it’s not the worst weed to over winter with, but eventually it needs to go.

Blank Canvas

The fastest way to kill clover is with fire. So I took a flame thrower to this bed. It now looks like an ash blank canvas.

Now the surface is prepared and the nitrogen fixing roots remain. The next step is to square up the lines of the parterre. That’s what is happening with the white strings.

Then we’ll reset the lines of the parterre. Finally we’ll use a gas-powered auger to mechanically drill all 32 (x2 – there are two parterres) of the 8” x 8” holes for setting the gallon boxwood plants.

digging into foundations
The limestone stoop to a former Greek Revival townhouse that once stood on this site.

It’s always good to remember to consult the “Ghost Map” of Mezzacello before we start a big project like this. See my blog post about the previous houses that were on the two plots of land that compromise the gardens. Yeah, those foundations are still there…

We’ll finish the bed off with pine mulch. After we stabilize the boxwood ecosystem, we’ll start creating the soil amendments and nutrients necessary for the herbs in the triangles of the knot garden.

It all starts with fire, effort, vision, and ash.