Planning an Herb Garden Articles | Gardening

By: Larry Gildea

Herb gardens can be planted for a variety of reasons. Some people plan their gardens for growing medicinal products, skincare products, cooking accents, and so forth. Herb gardens may be both practical and enjoyable from an aesthetic point of view. No matter what reason you have for planting your herb garden, there are a few basics that you should know about herbs and their functions.

Herb gardens should be planted according to personal taste needs and space considerations. One of the most enjoyable parts of planning any type of herb garden is choosing the type of plants you want to grow. Whether you want to grow your herb garden from seeds, or cuttings or propagation, the possibilities are endless, as are the containers and locations where you can grow your herb garden.

There are several basic kinds of herbs; herbaceous, evergreen, and annual. Descriptions of each are offered for you to familiarize yourself with them.

Herbaceous Herbs

Many herbs are herbaceous, which means that they die back and go "underground" in winter. Some of the more common herbaceous herbs are Oregano, Chives, Sweet Fennel, Winter Savory, Tarragon, Bee Balm and Mint. These kinds of herbs don't require a lot of time with pruning, for simply loping off the plant at ground level will do the trick.
This is usually done when the plant is harvested or when you cut back to get rid of the flowers. At the very least, you will do this at the end of the growing season. Herbaceous herbs can even be mowed over several times a year if you choose in order to help keep them free from old and dead branches.

Mint is an herbaceous herb as well, but one that should always be planted away from other garden plants, as it is a very invasive plant that will act much like kudzu, so keep it sequestered into its own area.

Evergreen Herbs

Evergreen herbs are comprised of such varieties as Rosemary, Thyme and Sage. This type of herb will require pruning at least once a year, but in most cases, people grow these for use in the kitchen. However, if you have planted for other than culinary reasons, these herbs need to be pruned in fall or early spring. We'll talk more about pruning needs later, but this is just to let you know that pruning herb plants is not nearly so involved or time consuming as pruning a tree or shrubs.

You only need to prune branches that are old and show no sign of new growth, those that are dead, as well as those lying on the ground or growing across other branches. This process allows additional light and energy to reach the best part of the plant.
When harvesting evergreen herbs for cooking cut away only about one section of foliage at a time, and always cut the stem to a section that still has growth showing. Again, we'll talk more about techniques and specifics a little later.

Annual Herbs

Both herbaceous and evergreen are perennial herbs, which means that they will live more than two years, but only if they are properly taken care of! Some culinary herbs are annuals however, and these include Basil, Chervil, Cilantro and Dill. The life cycle of an annual requires that it produce seeds each year before it dies, so the best way to insure a continual supply of these is to plant new plants every four to six weeks during the growing season. This is called continuation gardening, and will also be discussed in a later chapter.

Keep in mind that after an annual starts to make flower, it may be extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, to encourage it to return to merely leaf production. Once an herb has flowered, it won't produce the number of leafs you will need for cooking, but that doesn't mean the plant has to go to waste. Use the flowers and stems for beauty or medicinal remedies instead

Herb gardens may be both practical and enjoyable from an aesthetic point of view. No matter what reason you have for planting your herb garden, there are a few basics that you should know about herbs and their functions. There are several basic kinds of herbs; herbaceous, evergreen, and annual.