Fresh herbs from the bed simply belong to the garden. We help you plan and create your herb garden.
aromatic and medicinal herbs delight the eye with their variety of colours,
the senses with their scent and soothe many a physical ailment with their beneficial active ingredients.
As a seasoning or decoration on delicate dishes, they round off the most delicious dishes.
No wonder that the trend of growing healthy herbs directly in your own herb garden is becoming increasingly popular.
This is even possible in the middle of the city, because fresh herbs also thrive on the balcony.
But there are a few rules you should keep in mind when planning and creating a herb garden.
Create herb garden: The most important things at a glance
Do not mix annual and perennial herbs. Group herbs that go well together
Combine kitchen herbs as a mixed culture with vegetables and other plants
Herbs can be grown in a space-saving way with a herb spiral
Do not spray herbs and only use organic fertiliser or compost for fertilisation
Planning the herb garden: The herb selection
When you create a herb garden, a number of factors play a role in the planning.
The first question you need to ask yourself is: What herbs do I want to plant, and what are their needs? After all, it makes all the difference whether you want to grow heat-loving rosemary or water-loving watercress.
Sage and oregano need a place in the sun and rather dry soil, while parsley, borage and chives need plenty of water. Coriander and pimpinella prefer lime-rich soil.
And not all herbs like to stand side by side.
Peppermint and chamomile, for example, do not get along very well.
Dill and tarragon as well as marjoram and thyme do not like to stand side by side in the bed either.
As a rule of thumb: Do not mix annual and perennial herbs, but form groups of them.
So it's best to make a list of your favourite herbs and their requirements for substrate, space and sun yield.
Then group together all the herbs that go well together (for example, oregano, thyme and savory or hyssop with lavender) and finally, based on your considerations, choose the right location for your herb bed.
The shape and location of the herb garden
Afterwards, you should think about the desired appearance and location of the herb garden.
If you do not want to plan your herb garden yourself, you can fall back on tried and tested bed types.
For example, the elegant herb spirals, in which the herbs are planted in a spiral shape, are very popular.
You can also easily build such a spiral herb garden yourself.
Or have you ever seen a "herb wheel"? Here the herbs are distributed in a circular bed like in the spokes of a wheel.
You can also combine kitchen and medicinal herbs as a mixed culture with vegetables and other plants,
divide them into rectangles according to the type of farmer's garden or arrange them according to the Far Eastern harmony theory "Feng Shui".
If you want to do the planning yourself, you can design the shape of the herb garden individually, depending on your personal preferences and the available space.
It is also possible to create the herb garden intuitively, for example, to be inspired by the different colours of the herbs and to combine them according to visual aspects.
However, please note the incompatibilities of the plants with each other so that there are no unpleasant surprises.
Only plan your herb bed large enough so that you can manage it not only gardening but also culinary and not end up with half of its splendour going to the compost unused.
Small name tags help to keep track of the individual varieties, especially at sowing time.
Also note that many herbal plants, such as sage or chives, attract bees and bumblebees in particular during flowering.
If you are afraid of the buzzing insects, you should therefore not plant these herbs in the immediate vicinity of your terrace or balcony.
The classic: The herb spiral
A herb spiral is a real eye-catcher in the garden and a good way to plant many different herbs.
For this version of the herb garden, however, you need to allow for sufficient space and some working time.
A bricked herb spiral, when properly laid out, is characterised by the fact that one and the same herb bed can meet different location requirements at the same time due to different humidity zones - from humusy, moist soil to dry, warm substrate, each level of the spiral offers its own micro-landscape.
In this way each herb gets its optimal planting place and the choice of plants is not limited to like-minded people.
Herbs in a raised bed
When laying out a herb garden, raised beds can also be considered in addition to low farm and vegetable garden beds or herb spirals.
Raised beds are particularly suitable for Mediterranean species, as the soil there is somewhat drier and warmer than in normal beds.
A raised bed also has the positive property that you can harvest comfortably and without having to bend down, and the delicious scent comes directly to your nose when you stroll by.
And the best thing is: snails don't stand a chance in the raised bed! Suspended plants such as nasturtium also enjoy the elevated planting position from which they can let their long tendrils hang down.
If the raised bed is intended exclusively for planting herbs, it can be built particularly narrowly,
for example along the terrace, and designed as a decorative and fragrant privacy screen.
Creating a creative herb bed
A herb garden is in itself a varied and creative garden component.
But especially with herbs it does not always have to be the classic garden form.
The half-height, nimble herbs are ideal for decorative planting, for example, you can use them to create a lively bed border.
Or you can use dryness-loving herbs for the greening of dry walls.
Be creative and plant your herb pots in wooden crates, old barrels or a discarded wheelbarrow (don't forget to drill holes!).
Small name plates made of enamel, wood or slate are not only practical but also pretty to look at.
Small herb garden on the balcony
A herb garden does not need much space.
Snappy arrangements of herb pots are also possible on the balcony or terrace by cleverly placing the boxes and pots.
Determine the right corner for your herb garden based on the yield of sunlight and create a flower staircase or easel on which to place several pots or boxes.
hanging baskets perfectly showcase nasturtium and the creeping versions of rosemary and thyme.
The advantage of a pot garden when planning a herb garden is that every plant has room for itself.
This means that the individual substrate and watering requirements and space requirements can be perfectly catered for, and the various herbs do not get in each other's way when growing.
When a plant dies or is harvested, the whole pot is replaced with a new one in no time at all.
What else should one pay attention to?
Herbs taste and work especially because of their concentrated ingredients.
When growing herbs, therefore, plan not only the planting but also the care of the precious ingredients.
If possible, the herb garden should be located away from road traffic, so that the pollutants from exhaust fumes are not absorbed by the plants.
In addition, do not use any synthetic herbicides, insecticides or fungicides and fertilize exclusively with organic fertilizer or compost.
Herbs are best watered with fresh, lime-free water.
Water from the rain barrel is not suitable for herbs and vegetables that are eaten raw because of the germ load.
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