A few easy tips for starting your own herb garden

Apart from being esteemed for their medicinal value and culinary uses, herbs are attractive plants in their own right. Here's everything you need to know about herb gardens:

Herbs lend themselves to formal arrangements more so than most edible plants. Apart from their fragrance, they bring a wealth of contrasting forms and textures to the garden.

• The traditional herb garden comprises a formal or walled plot, with herbs arranged in neat beds and labelled for easy identification.
• In these gardens, the beds of herbs are often are edged with a low-growing hedge, such as box or berberis, with small brick or stone paths between the beds.
• Such a walled garden is suitable for cooler districts because it serves as a sun trap, creating the warm microclimate in which herbs grow best.
• A formal design is only one of several options. Many herbs are attractive plants in their own right and need not be restricted to the vegetable or kitchen garden but can make a useful contribution to a bed of ornamental flowering plants or shrubs.
• They could be used for interplanting in a vegetable garden, helping to ward off insects and smother weeds.

For excellent results, cultivate herbs in a rock garden, arranging the plants according to size and growing habit.

• Place larger-growing herbs towards the back of the garden, and low-growing, spreading varieties at the front, where their foliage can cascade over the garden edges.
• Whether your design is to be formal or informal, for convenient picking make sure that the herbs are within easy arm's reach of a path or series of stepping stones.
• The ideal site for a herb garden is somewhere sunny and open, but sheltered.
• Most herbs prefer soil that is light, sandy and well drained.
• It should contain sufficient organic matter to hold moisture and supply nutrients to the plants. Where drainage is poor, create built-up beds, adding humus to lighten and aerate the soil.

The best time to establish a new herb garden is spring, although you may be able to make successive plantings of annual herbs to generate a continuous harvest.

• Usually growth is rapid; the herb garden becomes well established after only a brief growing period.

There are both annual and perennial herbs and the two types can be grown together.

• Annual herbs are sold in seed or seedling form, although they are also available as advanced plants ready for immediate establishment in the garden.
• Perennial herbs are sold in pots ready for transplanting.
• A day before planting potted herbs, moisten the garden soil and the soil in the pot or seedling tray.
• The best time for planting is early morning or early evening, when the sun is still low in the sky.
• When the herbs are established, mulch around them. Water the garden regularly, especially in summer.
• Most perennial herbs die back at the end of autumn, virtually disappearing under the ground.
• In cool climates, protect them with a layer of organic mulch, and water occasionally if the winter is dry.
• In spring the plant will re-emerge. Mulch again to encourage healthy foliage growth.

Herb gardens are a beautiful addition to any backyard, and the herbs you can harvest can be used in your cooking all year long. It takes a bit of work, but the results are definitely worth it!