Small Ways | Rosemary Topiary
Simple. Reachable. Doable.
Simple. Reachable. Doable. Small ways. They pack enough punch to change your world, or your day. Or maybe, simply and gloriously, they’ll change your moment. Small Ways is a series about small objects, small gestures, small touches. Small ways for living well.
We were talking about gardening, and growing, and plants, as we usually do. Mom said she’s going to overwinter her geraniums, which was no surprise. In autumn when I was a teen, she’d somehow move two or three huge pots of geraniums from their places on the terrace outside, onto the floor of our sunroom inside, where the plants were happy and incredibly lush and green all winter. The idea of bringing even a little bit of summer inside for the winter is delightful; the experience of it is glorious.
I’m sure it was all this imagery and all these words of growing and green and outside/inside filling my mind that made the idea suddenly tumble out of my mouth and into my phone, “I want a rosemary topiary in my kitchen.” (Talk about summer in winter.) There’s a certain beauty and rustic romance to the thought of a rosemary topiary sitting, round and clipped and pretty, in a clay pot on the kitchen counter. Something you’d find, in my mind, if you walked through the kitchen door of any French or Italian farmhouse.
“I’m going to make one.”
And that was that. In one fell swoop, Mom and I both decided that we’d go to our respective nurseries on the coming weekend, buy rosemary starts and cactus potting mix, and have a go at creating our own rosemary topiaries. And if we were going to start one, we decided, we might as well start two or three.
In a scoop of time on Saturday morning, I did just that. Here’s how, if you’d like to make one (or three), too.
Choose healthy rosemary starts that have a strong central stem. In the bottom of a terra cotta pot (mine were 4” diameter), place a shard of broken pot over the drainage hole and fill halfway with potting soil. (Mom recommended cactus soil.) Gently lift the rosemary start from its nursery pot and separate by gently pulling apart if there is more than one plant per pot.
Place the start in the center of the pot, the top of the soil around the stem slightly lower than the top edge of your clay pot. Slide a bamboo stake into the center of the pot, right against the stem of the plant, being careful to not damage the roots. Pour more soil around the roots, gently pressing down, until the soil is level with the original soil at the base of the stem.
With sharp shears, snip the leaves off all the way up the stem, leaving a few at the top. Tie the stem to the stake with light weight twine, not too tightly, but enough to train the stem against the stake. Water throughly.
Place your baby topiary in your sunniest window. Rosemary like their roots to run dry, but their leaves to be moist, so mist them with water from a fine spray bottle once or twice a week, and water once a week, or when the top of the soil feels dry.
When the rosemary reaches the height you want it to be, pinch the top leaves. This will stop the upward growth and make it branch out, which will help create the ball at the top. As it grows, snip to shape as needed (and use that fresh rosemary in a roast or sauce or simmer pot).
And there, a potted herb on the kitchen counter, the art form of topiary. A bit of outside, inside all winter long.
Loves? We had a delightful hour together Saturday morning in our first Gather. The next one is Wednesday, October 4, at 7:00pm, MDT. I hope you to see you there!