How to Use Herbs in the Landscape

Herbs are more than medicinal aids and culinary delights. Using herbs in the landscape is a way to add color, texture and aroma while attracting bees and butterflies.

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Photo By: Ball Horticultural Company

Photo By: PerennialResource.com

Photo By: Sam Henderson

Photo By: Angela West

Photo By: Barry Block Landscape Design & Contracting, Inc.

Photo By: Melissa Caughey

Photo By: Danna Cain, ASLA at Home & Garden Design, Inc

Photo By: Image courtesy of The Garden Conservancy, www.gardenconservancy.org

Herb Garden Ideas

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.

Grow Herbs In Containers

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.

Find More Ideas: 20 Herb Garden Design Ideas

Herbs as Groundcovers

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.

Learn More: How to Grow and Enjoy Red Creeping Thyme

Herbs as Border Plants

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.

Find More Ideas: 20 Easy-to-Grow Perennial Herbs

Herbs as Low Hedges

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

Learn More: How to Plant a Kitchen Herb Garden

Grow Herbs for Their Blooms

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.

Find More Ideas: How to Plant, Grow and Care for Lavender

Partner Herbs With Other Perennials

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.

Find More Ideas: 20 Easy-to-Grow Perennial Herbs

Make Topiaries

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.

Find More Ideas: 18 Incredible Garden Topiaries

Herbs as Garden Walls

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

Get the How-To: How to Build an Outdoor Living Wall

Soften Hardscapes With Herbs

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

Find More Ideas: 40 Ideas for Creating the Perfect Pathway in Your Yard

From: Barry Block

Mix Herbs With Edibles

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

Learn More: A–Z Advice for Companion Planting in Your Vegetable Garden

Use Herbs in Cottage Gardens

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.

Find More Ideas: How to Plant a Kitchen Herb Garden

Herbs in Rock Gardens

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.

Learn More: A–Z Advice for Companion Planting in Your Vegetable Garden

Herbs in Prairie Gardens

Herbs work extremely well in a wide range of natural garden settings. There are herb species adapted to all types of environments from woodland to meadow to prairie to desert settings. Wherever you garden, whatever your style, consider adding herbs to your landscape. They add a colorful, flavorful, aromatic dimension that you'll love.

Learn More: Why Plant a Prairie Garden? To Restore a Natural American Habitat, That’s Why