Herbalbetty, do you have pics of your garden? It sounds wonderful. I grow herbs for decoration, food, and medicine. I buy at least 6 every spring as many don't winter over here. I especially like variegated and purple foliage plants. Oregano, purple sage, rosemary, marjoram, most thymes, Dusty Miller are only grown as annuals. Even lemon balm is not winter hardy here. I plant many at the edge of the patio so they are easy to get to and enjoy. In my main perennial garden I also have lavender, chives, flax, lovage, Johnny-Jump-Ups, feverfew, rue, mallow, horseradish, lamb's ears, Lady's Mantle, as well as red/pink/yellow yarrow that return, some self-seed. Some are only decorative in my garden altho historically have been used medicinally. We removed 3 stones in our patio and planted creeping thyme which returns. I didn't plant it this year but had a welcome parsley volunteer in a part of my garden where parsley has never been. I've seeded various herbs over the years. One year I even seeded rosemary, which can be difficult, and had lots of little plants by the end of the summer. They don't overwinter outdoors and are not easy to keep as houseplants I've found. We have red clover growing wild and I may plant more as a ground cover in my new garden. One year I had 10 different kinds of mint and kept them all in large pots. We buried the pots to overwinter, left them in place and they started to escape. So all but 2 were moved next to the barn where I think the deer ate them and they disappeared. Historically gardens were grown primarily for food and medicine so herbals were part of this. The fact gardens are decorative was a secondary function, now of course frequently the primary function. I like a combination.

LL - I'm sure you've already researched yellow jackets, but I did some checking for my own interest. The link below is to one good source that I think is probably local to your area (?) It doesn't emphasize as much as some of the others the need to have a professional do the spraying if you choose to spray. After reading some of the articles, I certainly wouldn't want to tackle spraying a nest myself! It was interesting to read that the colonies die out each winter and the nest disintegrates. New nests are formed each year (I didn't find an explanation of where the new queen comes from though! Migrates maybe...?) It was interesting to read about control possibilites by trapping the queens in spring to reduce or eliminate populations later in the summer. That might be worth doing. Since we don't have much sun in the backyard, all our veggies are grown either in the flower beds in the front garden or in pots on the driveway. We don't have a large veggie garden but enough to be fun and useful. Garlic is quite ornamental in the garden when it produces the curly scapes (which are tasty as a stir-fried side-dish!) DH tucks in garlic all over the place wherever he finds a bit of bare ground in the fall. Chives are very ornamental when they flower so they fit nicely in my 'pretty in pink' driveway border. Lettuce we grow in pots because it's unattractive once it bolts. It's easier to cut it down in the pots. We don't grow cooking onions but the little green onions grow very nicely in pots. So do baby carrots. I've grown leeks in pots too - it's easy to start them in just a bit of soil at the bottom and then keep adding soil to the pot as they grow - much easier to do all that in the pot than it is to keep hilling them up in a trench in the ground in the garden! Peas do beautifully in big pots. I plant at least 5 different varieties each spring in April. I choose the varieties based on days-to-maturity, selecting ones that range form 50-70+ days to maturity so I get a long season of production. 6' bamboo poles in a teepee arrangement makes good support for the peas. I use 8' bamboo poles for the pole beans, which also do great in pots, but would be ornamental in the garden as well. Since the peas finish earlier than beans and look ugly and need to have the foliage ripped out by late June-early July, beans would be the choice to grow in the ground as a productive ornamental, leaving the peas to be grown in pots. The pots I use are the big gray plastic storage pots with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage - they're cheap, can hold a lot of soil, and look not-too-bad :-) Deep window-box type pots make good containers for things like baby carrots, green onions and leeks. I've never had any luck getting tomatoes to do well in pots. I always put those in the herb bed on the side of the driveway. I move the location for the tomatoes around to prevent disease build-up from year to year. I've tried growing cucumbers and watermelons in pots but they weren't happy for me. Zuchinni did well (I think it would do well anywhere!) Green peppers did so-so. The big disadvantage of pots is watering the cursed things! I keep resolving to have fewer pots but it never happens... Now that DH is retired, he has taken over the 'veggie garden' and doesn't seem to mind the watering - he keeps adding more pots... Putting the veggies with the ornamentals should be useful and fun for your mother. Definitely go for it! You should be able to do a lot of it without a lot of digging up of new areas; just tuck things in wherever there's a bit of space, unless your mother wants a huge veggie garden. Some pictures: peas and garlic in very early spring (garlic in pots is planted in the fall and stored in the unheated garage for the winter): A month later (mid-May): The veggie garden on the other side of the driveway late-May: Young carrots, green onions and lettuce: Peas ready for harvest: Part of the harvest: Bean towers are so ornamental as well as productive. I love them! Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow Jackets

About the only concerns about a Japanese garden In massachusetts, would be climate issues. In Japan, the climate is comparable to a zone 7-8, whereas in your case, more like zone 5. Unless there are a lot of temperature controlled greenhouses and also suppliers for Japanese type plants in your area, it may be very expensive and a lot may die due to a much colder climate. Sometimes you can find some native plants that would look like some of the Japanese types, but a bit more hardy for the z5 climate. As to what would be historicly correct, would be based on the design of the house, where its situated, and if other houses nearby are similar in design. You mention Japanese as a garden theme, but then you say its an English architect. Two are obviously very different and if the 'tea' house is of Japanese theme, and its surroundings are a mixture, it might be nice to mix the two, buy keeping Japanese type plants closer to the gazebo, and spreading out with a mix until you reach the edges wich would have a more English flavor. Herbs can vary too, if thats all you want to plant. Hydrangers MUST have very acidic soil in order to become blue. Without it, the flowers are less, and color is a more pink. Statuary could be a mix as well, with more of the Japanese close to the gazebo.

I live in Brisbane, and I have an all-herb garden. The herbs LOVE it! There are some I keep in pots either because they have a yearning for world domination (mints) or because they'd get too big if planted in the garden (cardamom) or because they have weed tendency (feverfew), or because they prefer a little shade (mints again). The Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, basil, sage, thyme etc really do well here - just give them good drainage in case we get our much-needed summer tropical rains back again! You don't say where you're coming from, but if from a somewhat cooler climate, I suggest leaving the plants in their pots for now, and let them acclimatise for a while, then perhaps plant some out in autumn, or else wait until next spring. Most plants are much happier in the garden than in pots, and potted plants are really high maintenance, remember. You'll need to water them more often while they're in pots - an issue in SE Qld with water restrictions - currently Level 4 in Brisbane ie buckets only, on alternate days except Mondays.