Best Herb Gardens

A Primer For Herb Garden Design


Welcome to the world of herbs, and congratulations for embarking on endless hours of diversion from the stresses of modern living, by deciding to build and to maintain a collection of beautiful and useful plants.

You do not have to be a professional landscape artist to create a wonderful herb garden design, but some careful thought of what you wish to achieve, and due reflection on tips and guides from people with experience in this field, will go a long way to add to your future satisfaction with the collection and arrangement you build over time.

Basic Options In Herb Garden Design

It is always a good idea to visit established plant collections in an area before starting out on herb garden design for the first time. Exotic plants may not just stagnate or even decay in new surroundings, but may introduce new pests as well. This also applies to new varieties of indigenous plants.

There are trade-offs in herb garden design in terms of ornamental effects and utilities. Professional herbalists will obviously be concerned with optimal production of herbs, which they need for their vocations, but for the pure nature lover, aesthetics has pride of place over any crass commercial considerations. Every individual has the right to determine what exactly a special collection of plants should achieve, and this should find a prominent place in herb garden design from the very outset.

Traditions And Constraints In Herb Garden Design

Though we still use plants as food, for seasoning, and for fragrance, there was a time when most medicines and dyes also belonged to the vegetable world. Therefore, homes in medieval and earlier times had plant collections out of sheer necessity, giving herb garden design a classical touch that dominates much thinking on the matter even today. However, those with an eye for the modern should not be bound by the herb garden design ideas of our ancestors, and should give their imaginations full flight in creating new and enchanting ensembles.

Constraints of space may also dictate departures from classic herb garden design. Some of us are fortunate to live in mansions that are of palatial dimensions, leaving plenty of room for generous herb garden as a part of the landscape. However, those of us who prefer the convenience of a built-up and densely populated urban area must be innovative in squeezing a large collection of biodiversity in to a relatively tiny area. Herb garden design principles can be used to compromise with available space, to the extent possible in such circumstances.