The herb spiral at the Denver community garden changed my mind about raised beds

I spent years building those wooden raised beds for my backyard, thinking they were the best way to grow vegetables. Then last spring I helped out at the community garden over on 33rd Avenue and saw this giant herb spiral made of rocks and soil. It looked wild at first, like a giant snail shell in the ground. But the gardener there, a lady named Carol who's been gardening for 40 years, explained how the top gets dry and sunny while the bottom stays damp and shady. She showed me how she grows rosemary and thyme at the top and mint and parsley down low, all in one spiral. I tried a small version in my own yard this year with just four herbs and it works way better than my old separate pots. Has anyone else tried building one of these spiral beds? I'm curious if they hold up over winter in Colorado.

2 comments

2 Comments

samw471mo ago

Yeah... spirals are great but the rocks shift every spring.

karenhenderson1mo ago

Does the shifting happen because the ground is heaving from freeze-thaw, or is it more of a slow erosion thing? I've got a buddy who tried stacking rocks for a path and by June it looked like a jigsaw puzzle after a toddler got to it. Are you dealing with the whole thing slipping downhill, or just some stones wandering off on their own?