Keep the mint out of the good garden, tuck it next to a garage where any stray invading suckers will be cut off by the lawn mower. And do your best to use as much of it in summer drinks as possible.
Here are 19 herb garden ideas and tips on how to use these amazing plants creatively. I’m sure you can come up with even more than this and I invite you to add your thoughts to the comments section at the bottom of this post.
Use lavender as cut flowers and shear the entire plant back by one third every spring to encourage new flowering growth.
Chives can become a weed if you allow the flowers to set seed. Pick the flowers and put a few into a bottle of vinegar. Use the rest as cut flowers (you have to take a long enough stem but plan on using a short vase).
You can take an old wooden table, give it a coat of paint and arrange it in your garden for plants that prefer a bit of shade.
If you don’t have space for an in-ground herb garden, grow all your herbs in large clay flower pots. I grew upwards of six different kinds of herbs in my 12-inch flower pots. Put in the basement for the winter. Prune well in the spring before putting outside again as they’ll be long and leggy.
Make forms out of old metal coat hangers (if you can find them or use heavy wire otherwise) and train your rosemary up onto the wires (tie the branches with soft twine and twirl the branch around the wire as it grows so it will hold on by itself)
Mix your annual herbs around your vegetables or flowers. They don’t need a special spot to grow well.
I always use old sealer jars to hold my herb harvests. I can see what’s in there and the glass is far more visually appealing than any other container I’ve seen.
Use herbs as cut flowers and yes if that means adding a dandelion or two for color, what’s the harm?
As garnishes or to add a sense of greenery to fresh vegetables.
As a food source for bees that are at risk from pesticide poisoning.
You can hang your drying herbs together to form artistic looking lines in different colors rather than a single clump of dead stalks hanging in the kitchen.
Plant herbs into your perennial flower gardens where you can appreciate their beauty as well as their utility. They don’t have to be isolated because somebody called them a “herb”.
Don’t hide your herbs away in cupboards. Treat them as stars of the kitchen.
Herbs can be added to fresh cut flower bouquets for an extra spicy fragrance.
Homemade herb products can both save you money and add a personal touch to gift giving.
Herb gardens create special moments you can share with the special people in your life. Take a child out to the garden and let them taste some of the milder herbs or let them help you harvest them.
No article on herb garden ideas would be complete without mentioning the incredible number of ways you can brew amazing tea drinks using fresh or dried herbs right from your own herb garden.
Last but not least – herbs are a simple touch of nature in the middle of a concrete city. With their fragrances and tastes, herbs remind us of the finer things in life and a way to be directly in touch with nature.
You can read the other posts about herb gardening right here
Thanks for mentioning our honeybees and mixing in with our vegetable gardens. Mixing herbs in with vegetable plants and letting the herbs blossom will attract bees and other pollinators to your vegetables increasing vegetable production.