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Much publicity and many articles were generated during the years of Bill Varney's tenure as founder and previous owner of the Fredericksburg Herb Farm — we would like to share some of them with you here . . .

Fredericksburg is a charming little Texas town that clings to its German heritage like a burr to a saddle. The Verins Kirche (for "Society’s Church") Museum that centers Main Street is a replica of the one built in 1847 by German settlers. Townspeople furnish their homes with antiques from Der Alte Fritz, and dine on wiener schnitzel and sauerbraten at Der Lindenbaum. They bury their loved ones in a cemetery where each grave is neatly outlined in stone.

The town's bed and breakfast, known as Guest Haus, is a delightful log and stone cabin built by an Adolph Wunderlich in 1884. The inn offers a close-up view of living history, but more than that, it provides a convenient departure point for a visit to the Fredericksburg Herb Farm just down the street.

Established the day after Thanksgiving, 1985, this 14-acre farm incorporates a cluster of tin-roofed buildings, each made of wood the color of tea. Nestled beneath shady oaks, these buildings bustle with garden-inspired activity. Candles fashioned from plant extracts, herbs, oils, and beeswax are handmade in one structure called the Poet's Haus. Here, too are gardening tools, seeds, and books — two of them, Along the Garden Path and Herbs, authored by Herb Farm owners Bill and Sylvia Varney. In the nearby Quiet Haus Day Spa, aromatherapy with Swedish massage, body wraps, and European facials help visitors decompress.

In a restored limestone building, once a pioneer home, a gift shop now sells herbal oils and lotions manufactured onsite. Pink roses bloom on cushioned, white-iron chairs, while hand-painted herbs decorate the walls. In another room, extensive glass windows open onto tree-shaded views. This is the tea room that has become one of the Farm’s main attractions.

"Over the years," Bill Varney tells me on my recent visit, "we've just done one thing after another to Fredericksburg Herb Farm to reach the point where we are today. Originally, I had no intention of having a restaurant; the labor involved is unbelievable. But people who come want to eat. Over the past two years, the restaurant has actually become the fastest-growing part of our business."

Diners can savor food infused with basic garden and Mexican herbs and edible flowers along with home grown, seasonal fruits and vegetables. They sip Good-Thyme Sangria while eating Lemon Balm Bars or Rosemary-Orange Rum Cake. They enjoy meals enhanced with edible flower mustard, herbal jelly and seasoning, rose flower water, and lavender champagne vinegar. No matter what diners choose from the menu of where they sit, however, everyone can see the gardens that began the entire enterprise 20 years ago.

Paradise Found

The now six-plot site started with the Classic Cross Herb Garden. Just inside the archway sits a stone engraved with a sentiment reflecting Mother Theresa's famous quote, "Life is not worth living unless it is lived for others." As I eventually discover, it's one of many quotes that complement the natural.

"Sylvia and I have always been inspired by quotes," Varney explains as we enter the Cross garden. He recites a line from Emily Dickinson: “Any ancient garden took the form of a four-by-four square, a design that was based on the cosmic cross.” Indeed such a garden was first cited in Genesis (2:10): " … And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was parted and became into four heads."

The much larger Star Herb Garden nearby borders the other edge of the entrance to the property. Designed in the shape of a five-pointed star around a vine covered windmill, it extends about 180 feet in diameter. "I laid every stone in this garden myself back in 1991," says Varney. "It took 11 tons of limestone and I had strings out all over the place to make sure we’d keep things in line. Each of the five points is devoted to a single herbal aspect – medicinal, culinary, color, hands-on crafts, and cosmetics."

This Star Garden, which has been compared to the symbol of the Republic of Texas, has garnered much media attention. According to the message on the stone, the Star Garden is an "herbal heaven" that also resembles an Egyptian hieroglyphic signifying "rising upward" or "to educate." Some visitors, the inscription explains, take it to represent "a symbol of the manifestation of Christ for the Gentiles. "walk the paths, accompanied by two white cats named Myrtle and Mable who follow in my footsteps. I take note of the Russian mealy blue, and clary sages and the flax, fennel, tansy, Mexican mint, and horsetail. Near these I spot flowers including Dutch lavender, daylily, purple coneflower, calendula, marigold, and carnation, as well as salad burnet, thyme, and rosemary.

Varney quotes for me from "A Garden," a poem Andrew Marvell wrote in the 1600's: "See how the flowers, as at parade / Under their colours stand display'd / Each regiment in ordre grows / That of the tulip, pink, and rose." Keeping in mind Varney's admission that they're between seasons and have just finished sowing, I try to picture what the Star Garden will look like in peak bloom. As if reading my mind, he tells me, "It’s perfect in the springtime. There's such a blaze of color from the larkspur, pansies, and poppies – and all herbs have fresh new growth."

A fourth garden, the recently established Children’s Garden, sits appropriately, next to the Secret Garden. The arched entrance is almost buried beneath brilliant purple morning glories, a perennial that blooms all season long. Butterflies fuss over flowering plants; a large ceramic frog squats in the dirt. Here and there grow zinnias, marshmallow, and strawberry plants.

"Some kids these days don’t know how to start a seed or make a cutting," says Varney. "Some have never planted anything in the ground." So he and Sylvia invite school kids to come and plant something in the garden. "Once a week, a class from a private school nearby comes here, and they learn everything from nature to gardening to nature art."

Of the final two plots, the Working Garden hosts tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables for the kitchen. It's located by the greenhouse where the farm stores seeds and cuttings. The Ichthus Garden, planted in the shape of a fish, skirts the Herb Haus Bed and Breakfast. Composed of seasonally colorful, symbolic Biblical herbs, it serves as a faith garden for visitors.

At a restored, 1940s, two-bedroom frame house, once the home of a midwife where mothers with their newborns would recuperate, I end my visit. I see today's guests enjoying a breakfast of homemade herb bread with sweet herb-spiced butter, jam, fresh fruits and juice with edible flowers. Coffee or tea complete the menu, followed by a complementary bottle Texas wine.

Before I return to my little log-cabin B&B in town, I recall one more quote Varney shared with me, this one from Lewis Carroll: "No matter our age, we look for paradise, for a spiritual haven." To that I can only add that no matter what time of year you visit, you'll find that oasis at the Fredericksburg Herb Farm.

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