Laying out Your Herb Garden
Herb Garden Ideas
You have prepared your soil by amending it and working it to a depth of at least six inches. The site you have selected has at least six hours of sunlight each day, and does not sit in a boggy area or in a spot that's riddled with tree roots. Great start!
Preparing the soil and selecting plants or seeds is only part of the adventure, now comes the layout. You should be thinking about how to organize your plot to best advantage. Good housekeeping will require you to reach all the way to the back of the plot for weeding and harvesting. If you can't do that from the front, you will have to add stepping-stones every few feet for ingress and egress unless you have additional access from the back or sides. You'll also have to consider the heights of the plants you are planning on using, together with their light requirements, especially if portions of your plot receive partial shade.
Formal Herb Garden Layouts
Popular layouts include wagon wheels, spiral, half wagon wheels, and fans. These four can also incorporate architectural elements into their design, like statuary, sundials, bird baths, and fountains. Gardens that can be viewed from the upper stories of your home lend themselves well to these kinds of designs, and many can be constructed as raised beds. The structural elements can be made from bark, hedges, small stones, brick, wooden dividers, or prepared plastic (or aluminum) edging material.
The plants that you keep in each defined section should be roughly the same size to help maintain visual balance and appeal. It is also helpful to group plants with similarly colored blooms. Your creativity will really shine through if you try one of these options, but you can still have a wonderful herb garden without as much work.
Simple Herb Garden Layouts
A simple rectangle border can be transformed when it becomes an herb patch. Be careful to place taller plants toward the back. Borders that are bounded on one or two sides by walls or fences are more sheltered from the wind and are a better choice, particularly in harsh climates. Laying out your plot like a checkerboard can be very effective, grouping herbs that grow to similar heights and have complementary foliage and blooms.
For example: fennel, garlic, rosemary, pineapple sage, dill, tansy, and lavender can grow quite tall and should be placed at the back of the plot, while basil, cilantro, and rue grow slightly smaller, and thyme, chives, marjoram, woodruff, and oregano can be placed at the front.
Invasive creepers like peppermint, catnip, spearmint, and lemon balm can be contained in pots and placed partway into the soil as focal points. Partially submerged pots can also hold tender perennials (frost sensitive) that you plan on bringing indoors in the fall (like rosemary, ginger, bay leaf, and French lavender).
Other Herb Garden Ideas
Preparing the soil and selecting plants or seeds is only part of the adventure, now comes the layout. You should be thinking about how to organize your plot to best advantage. Good housekeeping will require you to reach all the way to the back of the plot for weeding and harvesting. If you can't do that from the front, you will have to add stepping-stones every few feet for ingress and egress unless you have additional access from the back or sides. You'll also have to consider the heights of the plants you are planning on using, together with their light requirements, especially if portions of your plot receive partial shade.Formal Herb Garden Layouts
Popular layouts include wagon wheels, spiral, half wagon wheels, and fans. These four can also incorporate architectural elements into their design, like statuary, sundials, bird baths, and fountains. Gardens that can be viewed from the upper stories of your home lend themselves well to these kinds of designs, and many can be constructed as raised beds. The structural elements can be made from bark, hedges, small stones, brick, wooden dividers, or prepared plastic (or aluminum) edging material.
The plants that you keep in each defined section should be roughly the same size to help maintain visual balance and appeal. It is also helpful to group plants with similarly colored blooms. Your creativity will really shine through if you try one of these options, but you can still have a wonderful herb garden without as much work.
Simple Herb Garden Layouts
A simple rectangle border can be transformed when it becomes an herb patch. Be careful to place taller plants toward the back. Borders that are bounded on one or two sides by walls or fences are more sheltered from the wind and are a better choice, particularly in harsh climates. Laying out your plot like a checkerboard can be very effective, grouping herbs that grow to similar heights and have complementary foliage and blooms.
For example: fennel, garlic, rosemary, pineapple sage, dill, tansy, and lavender can grow quite tall and should be placed at the back of the plot, while basil, cilantro, and rue grow slightly smaller, and thyme, chives, marjoram, woodruff, and oregano can be placed at the front.
Invasive creepers like peppermint, catnip, spearmint, and lemon balm can be contained in pots and placed partway into the soil as focal points. Partially submerged pots can also hold tender perennials (frost sensitive) that you plan on bringing indoors in the fall (like rosemary, ginger, bay leaf, and French lavender).
Other Herb Garden Ideas
If you are planning to plant culinary, medicinal, and decorative herbs, be careful to label each one. Rue and feverfew can be dangerous if ingested in high concentrations, so don't risk confusing them for salad ingredients. Small markers made from Popsicle sticks (or disposable silverware knives) can make it easy for even your children to help you snip small quantities of herbs like thyme and chives for the table. For this purpose, I've always kept a pair of kid sized (blunt tipped) scissors near the kitchen door, along with a small basket.
Give Herbs Room to Grow
Be sure to give your herbs enough room to grow. Many herb varieties, especially annuals, grow faster than you might expect, and can crowd their neighbors. Takes the spacing recommendations on seed packets and seedling descriptions seriously.
Cut Herbs Back When Necessary
Herbs are naturally hardy, so don't be afraid to cut back dill, fennel, basil and others when they start to get leggy or too large. This is a great opportunity to harvest them. Just remember to avoid cutting back more than one third of the plant during any single session.
Manage Herb Bolting
Many herbs will bolt when the weather gets hot too fast. Bolting is when an annual herb begins to direct all of its energy toward flowering and setting seed instead of producing new leaves. It's a survival mechanism. To encourage your plants to slow down and apply more attention to leaf production, pinch off flower buds as they begin to appear. If you don't take this measure, your plants will grow long and spindly, producing seeds and little else. To deal with bolting in hot climates, consider planting new seedlings of cilantro, dill and others every few weeks throughout the spring and summer.
Give Herbs Room to Grow
Be sure to give your herbs enough room to grow. Many herb varieties, especially annuals, grow faster than you might expect, and can crowd their neighbors. Takes the spacing recommendations on seed packets and seedling descriptions seriously.
Cut Herbs Back When Necessary
Herbs are naturally hardy, so don't be afraid to cut back dill, fennel, basil and others when they start to get leggy or too large. This is a great opportunity to harvest them. Just remember to avoid cutting back more than one third of the plant during any single session.
Manage Herb Bolting
Many herbs will bolt when the weather gets hot too fast. Bolting is when an annual herb begins to direct all of its energy toward flowering and setting seed instead of producing new leaves. It's a survival mechanism. To encourage your plants to slow down and apply more attention to leaf production, pinch off flower buds as they begin to appear. If you don't take this measure, your plants will grow long and spindly, producing seeds and little else. To deal with bolting in hot climates, consider planting new seedlings of cilantro, dill and others every few weeks throughout the spring and summer.
Choose Herbs That Work Together
Be more productive by choosing herbs and other plants that work together well. A good example of this is to select a vining plant that can use another nearby plant as a support, like planting passion flower vines with tall sunflowers.
Another good example is to match companion plants that can assist one another in resisting pests or increasing beneficial nutrients in the soil as a kind of plant buddy system. You can learn more about companion planting in my article: Companion Planting Herbs.
Interesante!!
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