English Herb Garden

A Guide to an English Herb Garden

One of my favorite memories from my childhood is our family going on holidays to the west country of England. The days were warm and I would often go outside and play with my brother in the gardens near our holiday home. These memories are still linked to the beautiful flowers and the smell of fresh herbs.

Many people who want an English garden worry that they don’t have enough space. The good news is that there are small herb gardens (Known as an English cottage herb gardens) that can be made in a small area of land. These are often stored close to the kitchen door, so the herbs can easily be added to the pot.

For those with grander aspirations English herb gardens can be made on a larger scale. These are often called formal English gardens. Because of their size, sunlight becomes very important, so you want to make sure that your garden receives plenty before attempting to make one of these. Most gardeners choose a shape (A diamond with herbs planted in a straight line is common, circles are popular too) and then use that to help guide the placement of plants. Some people love to get really creative here and create herb knot gardens , mazes or a mixture of shapes and themes! The shape is then used as a guideline for planting. Small herbs usually go closer to the center and larger herbs towards the back and corners.

A long time ago medicinal herbs were very popular in British gardens. Many old books have vast pages dedicated to the use of herbs to treat almost any ailment. If you are interested in completely natural medicine (Or just like the look) there are many herbs that are great for British-style gardens:

  • milk thistle
  • chamomile
  • valerian
  • peppermint
  • and many others…

Of course culinary herbs are very common in English herb gardens too. Basil, chives and parsley look great in an English garden and make great food additives/ condiments. It is useful to work out where to put these in relation to your door. It makes harvesting your herbs difficult and if they are too far away it makes it tough to grab them in the middle of cooking!

The best herbs to use are perennials as they look great all year round. Sages, lavender, thyme, rosemary marjoram and lemon balm are all great to plant as they last for a long time and are resilient enough to survive disease and pest attacks. For those who want to create the smell of these gardens, lavenders, bergamot, lemon thyme and honey thistle all have great scents so hopefully some of your memories can be linked with this fantastic plants.