NEVER MIND BEAKERS and bubbling potions—experimenting with seeds and soil can be just as exciting. That's what Penny Barthel discovered when she left her job as a middle-school science teacher to become a full-time mom and took up gardening in her Albany, California, backyard. "I think of each bed like its own little tidepool," she says.
Over the past 21 years, Barthel has transformed her 900-square-foot garden by taking an approach that's one part scientific and one part free-spirited. Encircled by citrus trees, the yard today bursts with aromatics like lavender, lemon balm, oregano, rosemary, and thyme, along with edible flowers like bachelor's buttons and pansies.
This slightly wild "fairyland look," as Barthel describes it, has been cultivated through trial and error, along with some serious studying up. Being short…
