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The Wild Child Garden is an example of a sustainable garden that preserves biological diversity by using a range of native plant species of all shapes, colors, sizes, and scents that flower and fruit throughout the year and provide pollen and nectar for birds and a wide variety of pollinators.
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Flowers growing in the garden include sweet alyssum, Apache plume, grape crush & Henry blue aster, boxwood basil, wild bergamot, black-eyed Susan, borage, butterfly pea vine, lesser catmint, swallowtail columbine, apple green, green twister, Mexican hat, pow wow, prairie, rocky top, & strawberries & cream coneflower, Mercury rising coreopsis, creeping Jenny, blue indigo, lithodora, cardinal flower lobelia, bloodflower, common, swamp, & whorled milkweed, blunt, common, & serrated mountain mint, azure blue, coral nymph, hot lips, lyre leaf, marble arch, sky dance blue, & woodland sage, saffron crocus, munstead dark red sedum, Angelina stonecrop, dwarf firecracker & teddy sunflowers, sweetgrass, blue tansy, Indian tobacco, & tuberose.
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Heirlooms growing in the garden are Apothecary's rose, circa 1890.
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Herbs growing in the garden include dark opal, Genovese, lemon, variegated pesto, purple, red prospera, sweet, & Thai basil, calendula, chamomile, chicory, chives, cilantro, comfrey, bouquet, fernleaf, & Teddy dill, elderberry, fennel, feverfew, anise hyssop, Hidcote lavender, lemon & mandarin lemon balm, lemongrass, lovage, apple, chocolate, eau de cologne, ginger, Kentucky colonel, lemon, peppermint, spearmint, & sweet mint, Greek, Italian, & kirigami oregano, curled, flat leaf, & Italian parsley, passionflower, Arp & BBQ rosemary, rue, garden & pineapple sage, self-heal, skullcap, creeping, elfin, wooly elfin, French, German, golden lemon, silver, variegated thyme, lemon verbena, and paprika & white yarrow.
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Shrubs & trees growing in the garden include fire chief ajuga, black elderberry, dwarf blue juniper, and flame thrower redbud.
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Vegetables & fruits growing seasonally in the garden include asparagus, bush beans, corn, cucumbers, okra, jalapeno & habanero peppers, squash, strawberries, and cherry & slicing tomatoes. Cover crops such as cowpeas, fenugreek, flax, lentils, millet, mustard, oats, Daikon radish, & turnips are planted in the fall to enrich the soil over the winter months. These crops are tilled back into the soil in early spring and provide nutrients for the upcoming growing season.
Wild Child Herb Shop of Tennessee is in suburban Fayette County, Tennessee in the town of Oakland. The property is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, and a certified Tennessee Smart Yard. I completed a lengthy process of mapping, documenting, and designing a sustainable habitat for wildlife that provides food, water, cover, and places to raise young. I used a variety of existing materials to accomplish this and left the yard natural to create a meadow-like environment that birds especially love. There is a large farm that lines my neighborhood with lots of trees and shrubs for wildlife to use.
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I have two special Houses for Blue Birds, and each house is teeming with adults, fledglings, and eggs. When the little ones fledge, they line up on my deck railing to practice flying and get a morsel of food from their parents. I also have a large feeder for Hummingbirds, and enjoy their migration in the fall, when the garden is covered with these tiny jewels. I have also seen house finches, cardinals, goldfinches, mourning doves, mockingbirds, chipping sparrows, and juncos. They love my pollinator garden and are especially fond of the bug and seed cylinders that are loaded with mealworms.
The Wild Child Garden is a container style deck garden that contains an array of Native American and medicinal herbs, plants, fruits, vegetables, and Apothecary's Rose, an heirloom red climbing rose cane that dates back four generations. All my products are cultivated, grown, watered, maintained, harvested, and cleaned by hand.