Creating Your Own Herb Rock Garden

One of my first herb gardens was in the middle of a clay field and it was not simple to get anything to grow right. When you’re planning your garden, you have got to put sun and earth quality at the top of the list of things to consider. Without the correct amounts of both sun and water, your garden won’t flourish. With the right combination of water, earth and sun, you can grow just about anything.

Rather than trying to fix the sod issues, I changed my garden plan and learned about rock gardening, which uses rocks and only a thin layer of good dirt.

If you have got a similar situation, you can cultivate your own rock garden. Some herb plants truly love the rocky craggy dirt that you can find in areas like this all over the world. If you don’t have the rocky soil and want the aesthetic of a rock garden, be sure you’ve got room for roots to grow and also some nice drainage.

When planning your herb garden, be sure that you are choosing plants that can stay compact, because with limited space you don’t want anything taking over. Look at your reference books for the right plants for rock gardens. Good ones are those that have silver or gray leaves. This is a big tip-off that these herbs can do well in this environment.

• Hen-and-Chicks: Also known as St. Patrick’s cabbage, Hen-and-Chicks is a succulent perennial that was once thought to cure warts. {I cannot imagine cutting open a hen or chick and rubbing it on a wart, but this perennial succulent herb, which is also known as St. Patrick’s cabbage, has a long history of doing just that.} Each leaf can hold enough water to make it through one day without water. Your hen will get up to 4 inches across before you know it. Soon little off-shoots, or chicks, will sprout up from the edges of your hen. You will enjoy the reddish-pink blooms that will appear atop a nine inch spike that shoots straight up from the center of each hen in the summer. Before you know it, you’ll have a colony of hens-and chicks.

• Wild Oregano: This perennial from the Mediterranean region will grow energetically up to 30 inches tall with its oval leaves and purple flowers that come out late in the summer. This isn’t the same type of oregano that you find in Italian meals, but you can eat it.

• Marjoram: Not only can you cook with marjoram, but you can use it in your rock garden. It’s a perennial that has a delicate scent with oval gray-green leaves and tiny white blossoms. Keep it pinched back so that it can stay lovely and full and don’t forget that it appreciates full sun and good drainage.

• Thyme: The shiny, small leaves of the thyme plant are clustered along woody stems that are adorned with numerous white or pink blossoms and grows to a height of up to 12 inches. Thyme grows best when the sod is sandy, well-drained and gets a whole lot of light. You will want to keep this herb trimmed back to maintain its shape and to help it remain hearty.

Part of the beauty of rock gardens is the mix of the hard rocks and the soft herbs. The difference in colors also helps in achieving a sense of the brilliant. You can even use aromatic and culinary herbs in your rock garden, which will give you all the benefits of a regular herb garden.

Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.

Here is more information on Herb Garden Designs. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.