How To Build An Herb Garden

Herb gardening is a simple and easy skill to learn. Compared to things like roses and orchids, herbs are easy to care for. They do well in poor soil, hardly any fertilizing and little watering. Compare that to many other garden plants, learning how to build an herb garden is a breeze.

Creating a flourishing herb garden takes more than just sowing the seeds and letting them grow. Therefore, it is important to have some basic herb garden plans before you even put the seeds in the ground.

Herbs thrive in poor conditions, and as a result, can become overgrown. Yarrow will completely take over large areas, and lavender will also begin to spread. Chives will even become overly crowded and bushy. There should be enough space in your garden or pot for the amount of plants you plan on growing.

Herbs will flourish if there is a space of about a foot for each major growing section so your herb garden plans should include enough space for the herbs you want to grow. Chives grow well in bunches. However, their roots still need space so that they can get the water and nutrients that they need without competing with other herbs in your garden.

There is very little groundwork to be done when learning how to build an herb garden. For a wide variety of them a good mixture of sandy loam and clay will be appropriate. Take care that there is enough space to let the excess water drain off. A lot of herbs are from Mediterranean and so are suited for waterless and stony earth with good drain facility. Still herbs require a little water to keep them moist.

For example, sage and lavender can thrive with nearly no manual watering. Natural rainfall can satisfy these herbs. Peppermint needs some more attention, but this can be easily accommodated by an automatic drip watering system.

Landscape fabric is a great way to keep weeds from growing in your garden, ruining the beauty of your garden and choking out your precious herbs. Digging up weeds later can be tiring and frustrating, while using herbicides might kill your herbs since they have a similar makeup. You also do not want to spray poison on your future food supply.

Despite herbs natural resistance to insects, you may want to consider adding a few sacrificial plants to your herb garden plans in order to save the ones you want the most. Dill plants can serve as a ‘trap crop’ that bugs will enjoy over your ripening tomatoes you have waited so long for. If you are hoping to use the produce of your dill plants for eating, try to use as little insecticide as possible to save them.

One thing about learning how to build an herb garden is knowing which herbs will prosper during each different season. Some will thrive year round, but others need to be planted in four week intervals. Yet others must be planted once the winter snows melt.