Creating a herb garden

[Zebbert]

Novice gardener here. Have bought several varieties of herbs from a garden centre and also attempting to grow some herbs from seed. Have repòtted the garden centre herbs in slightly larger pots and when they've got a little sturdier was then planning to plant them in raised beds to create my lovely herb garden.

Feel I'm being rather naive. What do I need to know?

One tip is to keep any mint in a pot or separate bed! It’s wildly invasive and will rampage through all your other herbs in a flash.
Most herbs like lots of sun and a well drained soil - they don’t prosper in heavy wet clay or a north facing shady plot. Other than that, they’re pretty trouble free. Good luck!

Thanks Babdock I'll segregate my mint

I'm planning to grow herbs too so watching with interest! We have a sunny south facing garden and I'm thinking about individual pots of mint, thyme, rosemary, flat leaf parsley, coriander and maybe oregano

I have loads of herbs.
My main tips would be:

• coriander and basil are very attractive to slugs and snails.

• coriander and basil and are both annuals but while coriander survives cold weather and self seeds freely basil absolutely cannot tolerate any cold whatsoever, it can’t be planted out until late May minimum and it’s never self seeded for me

• parsley is a biennial, it’s leafy year one and full of flowers year two then it dies.

It’s a plant that needs to be bought as a big mature specimen every year imo.

• mint does not play nicely with other plants and should be kept in its own pot as not only does it spread far and wide on the surface, it also grows far and wide under the soil so pruning alone won’t keep it small unless you regularly dig down and chop all the underground runners off.

• mint varieties can all interbreed.

Do not plant different mint varieties near to each other as they’ll cross pollinate and the baby mints that pop up will be crossbreeds and usually don’t taste as good as either parent.

• be adventurous and don’t just stick to mint, basil, coriander, thyme and rosemary.

There’s loads of delicious herbs to try, many perennial.

I’ve got a bunch of supermarket herbs ready to plant out. They are actually lots of plants in one pot. I separate them into about four chunks and plant a couple in the garden and a couple in pots for the kitchen windowsill.

My new (currently imaginary) herb garden will have a bay tree, rosemary, chives and sage as the main features, they all last for years and have pretty flowers. Then fennel (from seed), and a big parsley patch, lots of oregano and thyme at the front. Mint in a pot in the ground, and basil and coriander in pots as I’m in Scotland and they’ll live most of the year indoors or in the greenhouse.

Of those, only parsley, basil, fennel and coriander should be any work. The others are easy.

I'm a very fair weather gardener and we've had a raised bed herb garden for five years. It's got a standard bay in centre surrounded by:
-sage (grows absurdly; hack it down and it comes back)
-rosemary
-oregano
-chives
-a couple of thymes
-curry plant (for aesthetic rather than culinary value!)
I only really trim the plants when needed and they've been fine.

I added flat-leaved parsley this year from supermarket; last year's curly parsley is popping up everywhere. I put in a new basil plant every year - this year I'm also trying it from seed.

I have a couple of different mints and other thymes in pots elsewhere.

I'd like to be more adventurous and have more interesting things really. It's really satisfying to pop out and pick what is required for a recipe!

Good drainage, and check how tall they grow.

check how tall they grow

You can easily control the size of some of them by regular pruning.

I have a lemon balm and a common sage and an oregano that naturally grow quite tall but I have them all maintained at around the 15cm tall mark.
They are all at least 4 years old and very healthy.

curry plant (for aesthetic rather than culinary value!)

I wish growers/retailers would stop referring to this as a herb and call it by it’s Latin name.

It’s not edible and offers no medicinal value and is therefore, not a ‘herb’.

There IS an actual ‘curry plant’ with edible leaves used for cooking, it’s called Murraya koenigii but I believe it’s quite difficult to grow in the UK

lemon balm and mint make lovely hot drinks...cut off quite a lot of stalks and just rinse them under the cold tap....nothing quite puts you off more than seeing aphids in your herbal tea

boiling water over the lot and sqoosh them down with a spoon, add some honey if you like

other tip is not to grow fennel and dill together, they will cross pollinate and go rogue.

I have a large Veg Trug.
Currently its got mint, parsley, tarragon, oregano, thyme and sage flourishing in it.
Also garlic bulbs, nasturtiums, lettuce and pansies. No issues with slugs

oh and only witches or pregnant women are successful in growing parsley from seed.

Make sure it’s sunny. The only free spot we had was a partial shade, and the herbs don’t really flourish.

Chives do okay in partial shade, as do bay and mint.

Oh I forgot I have chives in the trug too
Currently a mass of purple flowers that bees love

@frostedviolets in my defence, I've also got cyclamen and snowdrops in there for vosual interest which I no intention of eating either, but you are right about 'curry plant' naming.

frostedviolets I have two varieties of fennel, lovage, Angelica, and a few others that are happy at a metre, but given the choice would be 2m+.
That’s why I said check the height.

I've kept mine all in pots. I had planned to use DS's sandpit when it became redundant but have stuck with the pots.

I've not long bought a new rosemary as the old one was poorly, of course the old one is springing to life. I've ended up with two pots of chives as the seeded in an empty pot. I'm not keen on mint generally but have some black mint as it's nice to chew

I managed to kill my tri-colour sage so now just have normal and pineapple

I must admit I'm not very adventurous and have given up in coriander as it hates me

So chuffed with all this advice.

Question: some of you have suggested planting supermarket herbs. Are these the ones that are sold in pots for culinary purposes?

I’m following this, as I’m hoping to get done herbs over the weekend. Some of you seem so knowledgeable and I get bamboozled when I start looking for information online.

I’ve just got back from the garden centre with herbs! We are revamping the garden.

Top window box - chives and some sort of trailing plant called midnight sun I think.

Next box on left - trailing lobelia and mint. I got the mint from the supermarket though.

Next one on right - I’ve got a very sick coriander plant that I bought from the supermarket that I was going to put in. Is it not worth it?

Bottom box - trailing lobelia and lettuce leaves.

Furthest planter - cucumber at the back, spring onions at the front and various bedding plants.

Closest planter - bell pepper at the back, various bedding plants and two strawberry plants that survived the disruption from last year!

I’ve got mustard to sprinkle in the gaps after everything has established too.

I’m an extreme novice so no idea if that’s right or if it will work, but I’m excited to try!

Lavender is a nice addition too, lots of varieties available and I recommend Folgate as lovely for culinary use. Flowers early. Can use leaves and flowers.

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