Herb Garden Design

Your herb garden design can take on many forms and be as formal or informal as you like. Growing herbs can be a wonderful hobby and a great way to round out your flower or vegetable garden. Use your hand grown herbs to add flavor to your meals - picked fresh right before cooking they'll add flavor unlike the store bought kind.

A herb garden design can be a formal design with rows of herbs and intersecting paths, or a simple garden outside your kitchen door. Herbs can be grown in raised beds or containers. They can be grown alongside your flowers or vegetables or even incorporated into your lawn edging.

Location

You can start your herb garden design anywhere you would plant a flower or vegetable garden. Herbs can grow in shady areas but should get at least 4 hours of sun each day. Select soil that has good drainage and a low to medium fertility. Don't over fertilize as this will cause the herbs to be very bushy but will lack flavor.

Size

Your herb garden design can be as big or as small as you’d like. Growing only a couple of herbs, then go for a few rows in an existing garden. Don't go hog wild right out of the gate, try for 6 to 10 herbs that you normally use anyway and if all goes well you can expand in the coming years.

Mapping Out The Garden

Once you have decided on which herbs you are going to grow it's time to figure out your herb garden design. Use a piece of grid paper and a pencil and map out an area on the paper that represents the size of the garden. Map out where each type of herb will be planted. Remember to leave room in between rows so you can easily harvest the herbs. Plant contrasting plants next to each other to add interest to the garden. A short bushy plant around a clump of taller ones can give some visual interest as can contrasting colors. If you are planting your herbs in with flowers or vegetables take into consideration how the herb will look when growing next to the other plants and plant accordingly.

Container Growing

You can restrict your entire herb garden design to containers and decorative pots. This might be a good idea if you are going to bring them inside for the winter. You can combine a couple of types of herbs in each pot using the same methods discussed above to add interest to larger pots. Or use a series of smaller pots and confine one type of herb to each pot. Make sure the containers have a drainage hole. You will need to water them frequently as the soil tends to dry out more in a container.

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