How to Use Herbs in the Landscape

Herb gardens will always be popular, but there are other subtle and effective ways to include herbs in your landscape. Take advantage of their beautiful and useful characteristics throughout your garden. Try perennial herbs as groundcovers in flower beds or along walkways. They can also be used as borders along retaining walls, fences or around decks and patios. Use annual herbs to fill container gardens or as companion plants in your vegetable beds. They can also be tucked into flowerbeds to add color and fragrance. Many herbs will attract pollinators and beneficial insects.

Growing herbs in containers offers the flexibility of moving them if they're getting too much or too little sun. Potted herb gardens may be a perfect solution for small spaces like patios and balconies.

Low-growing, spreading herbs like this red creeping thyme and Corsican mint work well between paving stones or on the edge of a flowerbed. When the foliage is tread upon, the fragrance of the plant perfumes the air.

Low, mounding herbs like oregano, thyme and some varieties of mint — like the pretty catmint seen here — work well as garden borders. These plantings are convenient for harvesting, and when in bloom, they are in a position to be seen up close.

Taller herbs, like rosemary or garden sage, make effective low hedges that can help to define the perimeters of outdoor spaces.

Most herbs are grown for their foliage, but many such as this English lavender, have beautiful blooms as well. When planted in drifts, either alone or in combination with other plants, they make a powerful seasonal statement.

Herbs with bold color patterns or prolific blooms, like purple sage, lavenders or golden oregano, mix well with traditional perennials. In this setting, Russian sage offers color, texture and aroma that spices up the conventional perennial mix.

Herb topiaries, lavender and rosemary are commonly available and are small enough to grace your tabletop, yet rugged enough to withstand outdoor conditions year-round in Zones 7 and higher. Use them in outdoor seating areas or around entryways.

Green walls are becoming increasingly popular ways to utilize vertical space. Herbs require some degree of southern exposure to perform well in this setting.

The billowing nature of many herbs makes them perfect candidates for softening the hard edges of stone and concrete walkways, retaining walls and fences.

Herbs mix well with vegetables and small fruit plantings. For small spaces, this strategy will boost production in terms of variety and volume.

Herbs fit well into a small courtyard garden plan. Whether planned as a cutting garden or a habitat garden for pollinators, herbs add texture and dimension to your garden plan.

With a compact size and rugged nature, many herbs work well in rock gardens (or rocky gardens). Those from the conventional Mediterranean cooking tradition are well adapted to well-drained, gravelly soils.