9 Evergreen Herbs for Your Kitchen Garden or Vegetable Plot

9 evergreen herbs for your kitchen garden or vegetable plot to add a practical and decorative edging, whilst maintain the edible concept. I’ve suggested these herbs as they should be hardy throughout most of the United Kingdom. In particularly northern or exposed areas you may need to add frost protection and / or take cuttings as a security measure.

See the blog links at the end for more about some of the herbs plus herb garden ideas and tips.

Why 9 Evergreen Herbs?

As the idea is to create an edible edging to the borders in your kitchen garden, it makes sense to have plants which will retain their foliage all year round. And a further benefit is that the foliage will be aromatic, adding a further layer of interest to your senses and to your garden.

Having the same plant as a low growing hedge also adds an air of formality to your vegetable plot, keeping it tidy and pleasant to look at even in deep winter. You could use a single herb throughout your vegetable plot, or have a different her surrounding each border. Both options work well, so it comes down to personal choice.

The foliage is aromatic as it contains essential oils which give the herbs their fragrance. These volatile oils are released when the foliage is rubbed, so growing evergreen herbs as an edge to the borders, especially where this adjoins a garden path, releases the fragrance as you brush past.

9 Evergreen Herbs – the List

Curry plant
Hyssop
Olive herb
Oregano
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme
Winter Savory
Wormwood, Southernwood

General Care Notes

Unless stated otherwise, the herbs

are tolerant of a soil pH ranging from mildly acidic to mildly alkaline
prefer a free draining soil over winter
like a nutritious soil

Curry plant

Helichrysum Italicum is known as the Curry Plant due to the curry scent its silver-grey foliage produces. Personally I am not at all keen on the smell it produces, but one of my best friends loves it, so it is very much a matter of personal preference! The leaves are used in cooked rather than raw.

Hyssop

Hyssopus officinalis is a small, hardy evergreen shrub and is part of the mint family, the Lamiaceae. It has a slightly medicinal, camphor-like aroma, but if you’re not keen then perhaps don’t use this as a hedge plant where you’ll brush against. Hyssop is a good companion plant for brassicas, as it helps to deter the cabbage white butterflies and slugs. See blog link below for more about Hyssop.

Olive herb

The olive herb, Santolina viridis, is an unusual plant with delicate, bright green leaves that have an olive scent and flavour which can be used in cooking. It’s a smaller cousin to Santolina chamaecyparissus which is the more usual ‘cotton Lavender’ plant (and is also edible).

Oregano

If you’re wondering about the whole ‘Marjoram’ and ‘Oregano’ naming, the botanical Latin name is Oregano for both. They all have aromatic, tasty leaves and edible flowers. And a tendency to hybridise…

For hedging in the kitchen garden I’ve found Origanum majorana, sweet marjoram, and Origanum onites, pot marjoram, to be good. Oregano vulgare is wild marjoram, and grows in many places, often spreading out from a herb garden to sneak into a wall crevice or path (there are worse things to have spreading around your garden).

We’re approximately halfway through our list of 9 evergreen herbs for edging your kitchen garden, vegetable plot or allotment borders. And so it seems a good time to remind you that whilst they all have edible foliage, it pays to try any new herb in small quantities.

Hyssop has already been mentioned as a companion plant and herbs generally can help with reducing pests and encouraging predators and pollinators. Their strongly aromatic foliage is the primary reason for this. Thyme, winter savory and hyssop in particular attract bees to their flowers, making them ideal to plant alongside peas and beans to encourage pollination.

Rosemary

Rosemary is well known as a strongly scented culinary herb, frequently used to flavour green lentil sauces and lamb casseroles. Strictly speaking it should no longer be labelled Rosmarinus officinalis but Salvia Rosmarinus, as its relationship to other Salvias has been confirmed.

As an edging for a border the variety of rosemary should be chosen carefully, as it grows into a quite a tall shrub unless regularly clipped. Rosemary ‘Miss Jessup’s Upright’ and Rosemary ‘Blue Boy’ are among the shorter varieties, reaching about 2 foot over 5 years if not pruned.

Sage

Salvia officinalis, Sage, does need to be kept in shape to work as an edging. Unless you’re happy with a more informal, floppiness that the herb is prone to. As well as the green leaved, there are also purple, plus gold variegated and tricolour (white, green and purple) cultivars. This latter always reminds me of the Suffragettes as these were the colours they used.

Thyme

Thyme is another heavily aromatic culinary herb and one of my favourites. Thymus vulgaris, common, or culinary thyme, has the strongest scent and best flavour. It’s fun to mix it with one or more of the variegated thymes as edging, such as Thymus citriodorus, lemon thyme and Thymus ‘Silver posie’.

Be sure to use upright varieties or cultivars of thyme for a low hedge. But you could use the creeping ones, such as Thymus serpyllum to cascade over the sides of raised beds.

Winter Savory

Winter Savory, Satureja montana, has a high proportion of thymol in its leaves giving it a pungent, earthy scent and flavour. If you want to use savory as your evergreen hedge be sure to check the Latin name as there is also an annual summer savory, Satureja hortensis. See blog link below for more about Winter Savory.

Wormwood, Southernwood

Artemisia abrotanum is an attractive herb with silvery-green foliage. Also known as ‘lads love’, this drought tolerant herb is semi-evergreen depending on your location and the hardness of the weather. Again the scent is one of personal choice, my aforementioned friend really doesn’t like it, whereas its one of my favourite herbs.

and finally

There you have it, 9 evergreen herbs for your kitchen garden or vegetable plot or indeed to form a hedge to your flower borders or herb garden!

If you still have coffee in the pot to finish drinking, you may enjoy some of our other blogs to give you even more garden inspiration, se the suggestions below…

And if you’d like an easy maintenance edible garden of your own, personal professional advice helps you to get it right and save you money. Funnily enough, I know someone who could help you with that, so do get in touch.

Plews offers both planting designs, garden designs and 1-2-1 gardening courses to support you and improve your garden.

For further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.

And on that note, you can have a peek at my new garden in the (new) Instagram account @spitfiresandslowworms