Many of us like the idea of having our own garden, but may feel that our lack of time and/or space will not allow us such an indulgence. This is simply not true! Planting an herb garden is fun, functional, and fulfilling. The best part is harvesting and using your herbs in cooking, crafts, or homemade health products. Growing and using herbs dates back thousands of years. No matter what your persona, there are herbs that would have been known to you. Most Medieval gardeners would have had herbs, vegetables, and flowers all planted together. This still makes good sense today as well.
Your available time and space will need to be considered when planning your new herb garden. The busiest of apartment dwellers might choose to just have a window garden, for instance. With just a bit more effort, a balcony, patio, or porch can have pots, window boxes, and hanging baskets filled with herbs! Most hers are quite hardy, and will grow best in sunny, sheltered locations. A fun idea for those with a bit more room is to lay an old wooden ladder flat on the ground to create a slightly raised bed for your herbs between the rungs. This would provide a nice, modest sized garden space.
Once you decide where to plant your herb garden, it is time to decide which herbs to plant. Again, keep your available time and space in mine, and choose herbs you already use and enjoy. Some good starters are parsley, sage, basil, oregano, rosemary, chives, thyme, marjoram, and mint. One word of caution, some herbs, such as mint or lemon balm, can tend to be invasive. This means they will try to quickly take over your neat little herb garden! It is usually best to plant these herbs in pots, even if planting your other herbs directly into the ground.
The photo above is an escaped clump of Spearmint. It came with the house! Rather than trying to dig it up and keep it within the adjacent bed it escaped from (an impossible task), I simply placed a broken pot at one end to give it the appearance of having spilled over!
