Herb Garden Ideas

Herb gardens and herb garden ideas have featured in domestic gardens for hundreds of years. Whether it’s from Roman Pompeii, through Medieval monastic gardens and Victorian walled kitchen gardens to the pots of culinary herbs on a twenty-first century windowsill.

But perhaps you’re feeling bored with how you grow your herbs? Or maybe you’ve been having problems growing what should be an easy plant? Maybe you’ve moved from the pots on the kitchen windowsill to a whole garden to garden in and are feeling a tad overwhelmed?

You’re in need of some herb garden ideas and I will do my best to help you with that, both here and through the links to other Plews Potting Shed blogs below. For example –

suggesting which herbs could grow near your shady back door to use in the kitchen
help for vegans to grow herbs sustainably (blog link below)
planting design ideas – where to start and what to consider when planning your herb garden

Defining Herbs

Herbs may be annual, biennial or perennial and the plants may range from rainforest trees to the wildflowers growing in a meadow on your daily dog walk. But let us define a herb as a plant which has one or more uses in the categories of –

culinary (eating) herbs
medicinal herbs
herbs used for religious ceremonies
cosmetic herbs
herbs and plants used for other practical purposes

The last category on the list is the most wide ranging. Historically this would include strewing herbs, were used for to reduce fleas and generally disinfect and improve the smell of house and castle interiors. And also plants which we used and still use to make chairs and cricket bats.

The issue with extending the definition of herbs to include all these uses is that humans have exploited and farmed their surrounding environment for so many thousands of years that there would be very few plants which would not fit into the ‘herb’ definition! I think its probably better to leave these herbs for another time when we can consider ethnobotany, which is the practical uses plants have been put to within a given culture. (A simple definition, but it serves for now).

But as we’re here to focus on herb garden ideas rather than their actual uses, we’ll leave the discussion as to whether a Yew tree is as much a herb as a pot of parsley for another day…

Herb Garden Ideas

As you can imagine there are plenty of design ideas for creating herb gardens.

And if you were to ask Plews to design one for you, we would be looking at a range of factors before coming up with the herb garden design to suit you. These are helpful if you’re planning to design your own herb garden, whatever the style

Will the herbs be in sunny or shady spot?
How much space is to be given to the herbs? Are you considering a substantial herb garden or a herb border?
To what use do you want to put the herbs, eg will you be cooking with them? Or do you want to enjoy their aromatic and decorative qualities only?
How much time do you want to spend looking after your herb garden? ie did you want an easy maintenance herb garden, or would you like to potter?
How much gardening knowledge you have? (some herbs need more attention than others)
Also useful – what is your approximate budget?

There are more aspects to garden design and planting design than this, of course, but finding your answers to the above questions are a very good way to begin.
Next up is looking at some ideas for where you could have your herb garden.

Container Herb Gardens

Container herb gardens are a good way to start if you’re new to gardening, only have a small space or are renting. As herb garden ideas go, this is the most flexible option.

Using different pots for different herbs does mean that you can vary the potting compost to suit the herb. And having some pots in a sunny area, and others in a shadier corner gives you a broader range of herbs to choose form – they certainly do not all like full sun all day.

Grouping your herb pots together creates their very own microclimate. This can reduce watering needs and increase frost resistance.

Alternatively, go for the largest container you have room and money for and plant it with herbs that like similar soil and aspect. That’s your herb garden sorted!

Herb Garden Ideas – Raised Beds

Very similar to a huge container, raised beds are an excellent way to grow herbs. If you have room for a good sized herb garden, it can be both an ornamental and a practical choice, with raised beds laid out in a decorative pattern.

As with container gardens, raised beds allow you to adapt the soil to suit the needs of the different types of herb plants. The formality of raised bed gardens fits in with many modern house styles.

It also harks back to the regularity of the geometric parterre and knot gardens of Medieval, Tudor and Stuart herb gardens.

On a practical basis, paths between the raised beds allow easy access to the herbs and the soil won’t need to be walked on. And as the raised beds are likely to be larger and possibly deeper than containers, they will –

need less watering once established – especially useful with perennial herbs
give more frost protection to the plant roots
reduce weeding and make weeds easier to spot
be more easily protected from slugs and snails

Raised bed gardening works with both formal and informal gardening styles, so it can suit cottage gardens and modern urban gardens.

Wildlife Flower Border Herb Gardens

Using herbs within a mixed flower border is an easy way to encourage wildlife. And allows you to still grow those complex double flowered plants whilst still offering a feast for the pollinating insects. Two examples: –

Plant herbaceous perennial or shrubby herbs throughout a border. Group them in 3s, 5s or 7s depending on size. You could choose an evergreen shrub such as English Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, or Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus. These will also give structure to your border over winter if most of the other plants are herbaceous.

Edge the border with a low herb hedge. Lavender is a popular choice for this situation, be sure to prune every year after flowering to maintain a compact shape. There are less common choices which you may like to try that are just as attractive to wildlife. Hyssop has deep purple or pink flowers and grey/ green foliage. It is a smaller shrub than Lavender with a more upright habit.

Herb Garden Ideas – Kitchen Gardens and Vegetable Plots

The usefulness of growing herbs as part of a kitchen garden layout is well known. But sometimes the herbs become secondary to the vegetables and fruit which is a shame. Flowering herbs are one of the easy ways to encourage bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects into the edible garden. As companion planting they also act as pest deterrents and can reduce issues with disease.

But what if you want your herbs to be in a garden of their own as well as performing helpful tasks within your kitchen garden? Well, here’s a thought, why not have five small herb gardens, one at each corner and one in the middle? This will give you allow you to take advantage of the various herbs’ preferences for afternoon sun, shade and so on as they will offer different aspects.

You already have a raised bed vegetable garden laid out? Then you could include herbs as edging for each of these. For example, parsley for the shadier bed where you grow brassicas; thyme for a sunnier spot. This gives the herbs more of a purpose and a higher profile. In the case of the evergreen herbs it also helps keep the kitchen garden productive over winter.

Wildflower Meadow Style Herb Garden

Or to put it another way, a border or larger area filled with annual herbs to give the effect of a wildflower meadow. This idea is predominantly ornamental, although you could obviously pick some of the herbs.

Its an idea that might suit those who have a reasonable garden soil and don’t want to strip that off to create the poor soil that most wild flowers prefer. Or you could see it as an alternative to an annual flower border. It also works when you’re not staying long in a property as the herbs can be sown as seeds.

Because of getting weed seedlings muddled up with herb seedlings, it is best to plan a design before sowing. You can direct sow some or all of the herbs. Personally I’d like a mix of hardy and tender herbs, so I would start some seeds under cover to plant out the young herbs when the threat of frost has passed.

Some herbs to choose from are –

Borage
Calendula (pot marigold),
Coriander
Dill
Fennel – bronze form for contrast
Field Poppy
Nigella
Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)
Rocket -sweet and salad
Summer Savory
Valeriana officinalis

Agreed they’re not all strictly speaking annuals, Fennel, for example, but they do work well in such a situation.

Herb Garden Ideas – what next?

For further gardening advice and inspiration on herbs and herb gardens, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, especially the selection below – and find us on Instagram and Facebook

If you would like help with your designing herb garden, do get in touch. Plews is able to offer you Garden Design and Planting Design You’ve just asked about one of our favourite types of garden and we would love to get involved!

Or perhaps you would prefer Gardening Lessons about herbs in your own garden? Because where better to learn about what’s relevant to you as a gardener? Plews Gardening Courses and Lessons are bespoke to you and your garden and combine hands-on confidence giving with necessary ‘why we do this’ reasons.

And lastly did you know there’s a monthly Plews News with topical gardening tasks and ideas? Get yours here