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.