Last year I built a garden path that I wanted to fill with flowers between paver stones (something to attract more bees)... but I planted a bunch of annuals, and then this spring it had over grown with weeds. I had to weed it and effectively start all over. That's not exactly what I was going for. I decided I needed a perennial - so I wouldn't have to do this again.
I discovered Roman chamomile (also called English chamomile). It has an cousin, German chamomile, which is an annual and favored by tea makers for it's robust flower production. But Roman chamomile has a long tradition of being a ground cover for paths in English gardens! :)
I discovered that chamomile seeds are *small*; too small to easily manage by hand. I ordered 5000 seeds from outsidepride.com and you can see in the bowl picture, 5000 chamomile seeds doesn't look like much. I read a posting on gardenweb.com that suggested mixing the seeds with sand in order to make them easy to manage by hand. I thought this was a great idea. Once they were mixed, the kids were able to help me plant them. "We're planting flowers with seed-sand."
I'm looking forward to having the path covered with a nice looking perennial... but having an herb that has been recognized for centuries as having medicinal qualities is definitely a bonus.
"The Camomile; The more it is trodden on, the faster it grows."
- Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1
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