Plants for a Basic Herb Garden

So, you want to start a basic herb garden, but you have no idea which plants you should buy, where you should plant them, and how you should care for them. Luckily, it is not that hard to make a basic herb garden, even for beginning gardeners. After all, herb gardens have been around for centuries.

To start a basic herb garden, you should first find a good growing spot. The area where you make your garden should get full sun for at least six hours a day. The soil should be rich and dark and filled with nutrients. If you have heavy clay soil, you will either need to make a raised bed or amend the soil to make it better. Amended soil is simply soil with a lot of compost mixed into it.

Once you have a location for your garden, it is time for the fun part, planning your basic herb garden. Most herb gardens are laid out in geometric shapes. If you prefer a formal look, you may want to edge your garden beds with boxwoods. For a country look, you could plant your herbs in an old wagon wheel, instead. Next, you will need to choose the plants for your basic herb garden. If you will be using a certain herb heavily, you should plan to purchase three to five plants. If you are just buying a plant because you like the way it looks or smells, you may only want to buy one to three plants.

If you want to grow a basic herb garden for the kitchen, you may want to add parsley, chives, rosemary, fennel, and sage to your shopping list. For an aromatherapy garden, lavender, lemon grass, and rosemary are popular choices. For a healing garden, try coneflowers, pot marigolds, aloe vera and feverfew. A dye garden should include baptisia, French marigolds, and indigo.

Once you have all of the plants for your basic herb garden, it is time to place them in the ground. Pull each plant out of the pot and check to be sure it is not pot bound. When a plant is pot bound, the roots start to grow up around the sides of the plant’s root ball. Spread the roots at the bottom of the root ball out to keep them from continuing to grow in a circle. Dig a hole and place the plant in so that it is growing at the same level as it was before. When all of your herbs are planted, water them to remove any air pockets. You now have your first herb garden.