Working on one’s herb garden design will be much easier than designing a full garden. Actually, everything about an herb garden is easier and for beginning gardeners, a great place to start. Those working on an herb garden design will also soon realize that they take much less space and fit into a standard garden easily, or in to another location that may be available. The following are considerations for designing an herb garden.

The first consideration when developing the herb garden design is what will it be used for. This thought will impact all other aspects of the herb garden design. Will the herbs be used for culinary purposes, aromatic scents, medicinal reasons, or simply for aesthetic reasons. Of course, one is not limited to just one use, but having the reason(s) for wanting an herb garden will help the garden design. It will help address the following considerations and much more.

The next consideration is unique to herb gardens and that is if one wants an indoor or outdoor garden. Herbs being small enough that they can grown indoors. Also, they can be grown both indoors and outdoors as a form of hybrid garden. When grown in containers they can be started or finished indoors, with a part of growth outdoors. Meaning that herb could be started early or late in the growing season.

Once those issues are addressed one can start on their herb garden design.

An indoor herb garden will necessitate placing herbs in pots or containers. The value of this is that they can be moved. This ability to transport place to place will be good for the plants. One can place them in the path of sunlight through doors and windows, yet move them when it gets too cold or if they are disrupting indoor traffic. They can also be taken outside for a day or even a night or longer if desired. Then transplanted back inside if needed because of extreme weather.

More stationary herb gardens like windowsill or large outdoor planters, more care needs to be taken with the herb garden design. However, one consideration in designing the herb garden in containers either indoors or outdoors is to make sure a mature plant has plenty of depth. Multiple plants in a single container should be at least twelve inches deep. Single plant containers should have at least six inches depth.

Of course, a permanent outdoor garden or portioning part of one’s garden for herbs will require good planning. Essentially, the following is what will serve a permanent outdoor garden well.

Herbs are small compared to regular garden plants, so in an existing garden, keep them far from large plants, preferably near the smallest garden plants. Or even a space to themselves as they do not require much room. Just make sure they will get half a day of sun everyday. Then just like garden plants to herbs, keep the large herb plants like rosemary in the back and middle of your herb plot to allow other herbs to get sun. Then middle sized plants like tarragon should be in the middle of a herb garden. Finally, the herb plot should have the smallest plants like oregano and thyme in front and on the edges for more sun. This is the basic element of herb garden design.

One note about mint. Mint can take over a garden so it should be kept separated into its own area a bit away from the garden or possibly in its own containers, even in an in-ground, permanent garden.

A note about ground herb gardens, make sure there is enough room to walk and harvest in between plants. Or if only using a small plot, it should be no larger than arms length, so one can harvest and attend to it easily.