Uncle Marvo wrote:
I'd keep a distance between the lavender and the rosemary. Lamb and lavender
doesn't sound a great combination.

Uncle! You and your bellie! Honestly )

I've done it - and did I larf! And so did my neighbouring allotmenters.
Here I was with my 12 lavenders, 12 rosemaries, 12 buxus, hoping to
create a 12m hedge (5mx1m rectangle) but didn't for obvious reasons.
The result of my new design is lovely. I've used a 2m2 plot where last
year's oinions were and it is lovely. 3 lavenders, 3 buxus, 3
rosemaries etc. The design is straight at the back and oval at the
front, something like a 'D'. Next I want to do key holes, like the good
permie that I am.

I saw a wicked rosemary in a pub garden this weekend, mine has gone all
straggly. Do these things get old, like people? If you cut them right back,
do they get a new lease of life, or is it time for the compost bin?

They do get old sadly. You can't cut them into old wood they will not
come back. However I have kept some less straggly ones by bringing some
soil up around them, so they rooted and created more shoots. But that's
not for very old plants. I kept many for years in a dry area of my
front garden, with lavenders amongst them. I had moved them from the
old house ...so imagine how ancient they were. Eventually I put them on
the bonfire and that gave me a craving for some lamb .... ))