Best Way to Create a Herb Collection in your Garden

If you have enough space to cultivate herbs fro ornament, display them in groups according to their use or to emphasize the differences between plants in the same genus. There are herbs for every theme and colour scheme. For example, collections of mint, rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender and marjoram reveal a wide range of foliage colour, flower colour and, frequently, essential oils and aromas. Such collections, arranged by genus and species, show the characteristics of the various plants and display the differences between each species and form.

Before you plant a collection, you need to find out the maximum heights and spreads of the various plants and how much sun they need. Look at the different foliage colours and place them so that they look good together.

The simplest collection consists of the herbs you use often in the kitchen. Grow them in a small circular bed or in containers close to the kitchen door, for easy access. You could devote a small rectangular bed to bay, thyme and parsley, the three classic herbs of a bouquet garni. Choose a standard or conical-shaped bay as the central focus. Plant thyme bushes in the corners of the bed, and fill the centre with parsley. For a fines herbes collection, grow parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon. If you like Italian cuisine, grow bay, basil, marjoram, garlic, rosemary and sage.

For an Asian taste, choose coriander, lemon grass, Japanese parsley, perilla and mint. Pizza herb gardens containing marjoram, basil, basil and rosemary are popular in the USA.

Another possibility is to group together herbs whose leaves are used dried or fresh to make teas and tisanes, such as sage, mint, bergamot and chamomile. Appealing alternatives include fragrant herbs for a potpourri collection and a collection of edible flowers. Enjoy cowslip and violet flowers crystallized or baked in cakes and scones. Decorate salads with fresh flowers of pot marigold, chives and thyme. Lavender flowers and rose petals added to ordinary or caster sugar will transform it into a scented sweetener for baking and desserts.