Herbs in the Garden

Herbs take up very little space in the garden and do not need to be planted in a special herb garden or area set aside from the main garden. Nor do herbs need to be relegated to fanciful and difficult to maintain knot gardens or parterres. 

Herbs can be planted in flower beds, hanging baskets, in borders and vegetable beds, in pots and containers for patios, terrace and deck.

Just like any other plants, garden herbs come in a range of different foliage colours through green, gray, bronze, purple and yellow to variegated. And with their full spectrum of flower colors, shapes and textures herbs are at home just about anywhere in the garden.

In fact it's probably easier not to treat herbs as a separate group of plant. Because different herbs have different cultural requirements gathering them altogether in one place doesn't make much sense.

For example, many Mediterranean herbs such as thyme are drought tolerant and need full sun and fast draining soil, whereas most varieties of mint prefer cooler conditions and a moisture retaining soil. These two plants do not combine well in the same place but both are very useful culinary herbs.

However both can be grown successfully in pots and moved around the garden as required. Mint in particular is best kept in a pot and should not be planted out in the garden as it is a rampant grower and just wants to take over the planet. 

So whilst the culinary herbs you use most may appear in areas not far from the kitchen door or in pots on the patio or terrace, it's fun to experiment and to discover many other places in the garden where herbs can play a role.

In addition, the varied texture and shape of herbs that are grown more for their leaves than their flowers can make a strong contribution to the garden throughout the changing seasons.

Herbs have much more to offer than cooking with or garnishing salads. Herbs can also be used to soothe burns, scratches, coughs and colds. You can make teas with them, perfume your home with them, put them in your bath water, weave, spin and dye with them, make lotions and potions with them and even use them to cast spells.

And of course dried and fresh herbs can be used in all sort of craft work or simply picked and put in a vase of water. The role of herbs in the garden is really only limited by your imagination. 

So why not experimant a little and allow these easy to grow, versatile and diverse range of plants the freedom of the garden and consign the herb patch to the gardening history books.