If you’re planning a garden space, there are so many ideas to choose from. You can create keyhole gardens (planted in the shape of a giant keyhole), or cross gardens, or crescent moon gardens, etc. I know one woman who planted an Artemis garden, with only herbs in the Artemesia family; these are silvery plants that have a certain magic about them, and the garden casts a silver-blue hue. Another woman planted a spiral garden with themes of life stages, incorporating flowers and herbs that were symbolic. Another friend planted a pizza garden filled with herbs and vegetables that she wanted to cook on her pizzas. 

 How To Design Your Garden

When you’re thinking about design, especially consider the height of the plants. In my herb garden, I decided to create three large, separate beds starting at our deck and heading outwards. The plants in the bed closest to the deck are generally short plants, growing at a height of no more than 1-2 feet (short fennel, lemon balm, oregano, sage). The second bed contains herbs that grow about 4 feet tall (bee balm, anise hyssop, yarrow, pleurisy root), and in the third bed the plants are quite tall (vitex, elderberry, valerian). It’s worked quite well.

Consider Soil Types, Sun and Shade

You can also consider the type of soil you’ve got in different places; if part of your garden is sandy, plant your Mediterranean herbs there. Plant your rich-soil plants elsewhere, such as elecampane and elderberry, which like it a bit richer and wetter.

Also consider shade and sun. I’ve found that lemon balm will grow fine in the sun but when it happens across a shady spot, it flourishes with broad, dark green leaves. Yarrow and sage and pleurisy root want full sun, but ladies mantle is happy in the shade and elderberry likes to keep her feet wet, so somewhere swampy or marshy is best (perhaps under the eaves of the house or near a drain). Mints are surprising—they will grow almost anywhere and spearmint and peppermint are quite happy in full sun. But I’ve often come across mints growing in the middle of a stream, completely in the water, and they are thriving. Similarly, jewelweed wants to be very wet, so if you have access to damp woodlands or a creek, consider planting jewelweed.

Let your imagination run wild, but also consider the structure and how the garden will look from different angles and perspective-points. (See the blog post Garden Design and Infrastructure) for more tips.

Excerpted/adapted from Llewellyn’s Little Book of Herbs by Holly Bellebuono