Planning an Herb Garden

Every cook and herbalist needs a constant supply of fresh herbs. Grow them yourself by following these simple strategies

Herbals

If you are new to the world of growing herbs, you will want to get an herbal. This is a book that describes the characteristics of the herb (size, taste, properties) and how to grow it. A good herbal will help you learn about the herbs that you would like to grow and will allow you to select the herbs that will work in your garden.

Choosing Your Herbs

Choose the herbs that you love and use the most and plant more of them. If you cook a lot of Italian dishes bread, you might want to plant several different kinds of basil, oregano, garlic, rosemary, and fennel. Bread makers might want to add thyme, marjoram, and dill for herb bread. If you are exploring the use of herbs for healing, select a few to concentrate on and start with those, adding other herbs that might complement them.

Next, determine whether your herbs are annuals, perennials, and biennials. Perennials are the most economical to grow as your initial investment will pay off in multiple years of harvests as your plants become well-established. Biennials will produce for two years before dying off, while annuals die off and must be re-planted every year. Annuals tend to be cheaper to purchase than perennials and biennials, but will have to be purchased every year unless you are successful at harvesting and saving the seeds. Some annuals will reseed themselves naturally, but you should not rely on this.

Familiarize yourself with the growing needs and habit of the herbs you want to plant. You will need to know how how much sun each plant needs, the type of soil required, how much water it needs, how hardy the herb is in your zone, and if it is particularly prone to any diseases and pests.

You will also need to decide whether to grow your herbs from seed or if you will buy young plants. Some herbs are easy to grow from seed while some others can be very challenging.

Setting Up Your Garden

Once you determine the needs of each plant, you can begin to plan the layout of your garden.

Analyze your garden, looking at the amount of light you get, whether it is early or afternoon sun, full sun, shade or partial shade. What kind of soil does it have? Is it usually wet, exceptionally dry, or in between? If your garden has a combination of different factors, map them out on a piece of paper with a pencil. This will help you determine which plants should go where.

As you plan where to place your herbs, be aware of the growing characteristics of each. Figure out how tall and large each plant gets and make sure that you give each enough space and access to sunlight. Don’t plant a small herb such as thyme between a basil and chamomile! Some plants can be invasive. Be sure that if you plant mint, for example, that you take steps to contain it.

A number of herbs complement one another. For example, planting marigolds, lavender, nasturtiums, and oregano in and around the perimeter of your garden will discourage most pests and will help protect other herbs. Chervil grows well when planted near dill and coriander and chives and parsley actually grow better when they are next to each other. Likewise, however, be careful about herbs that should not be planted next to one another, like rue and basil.

Tender Perennials

Some perennials are ‚”tender.” This means that they will continue to come back year after year but only if the growing conditions are right. Rosemary is a good example of a tender perennial. It requires a lot of sun and warmth and cannot tolerate a cold winter. Northern gardeners should not despair, however; plant the rosemary, or any other tender perennial, in a large pot that can be taken inside during the cold months.

You will have to acclimate the plant to the change of environment. First, gradually move the plant into a shadier place to simulate the lesser amount of sunlight indoors for a few weeks. Prune the plant back a little and treat them with an organic pesticide to remove any pests. Try to move the plants at a time when the indoor and outdoor temperatures are fairly close.

Once your herbs are planted, continue to follow the guidelines for each herb as carefully as possible to be sure that they grow well. When they are fully mature, you can begin harvesting your herbs as you need them.