How to design your own medicinal and aromatic herb garden

Herb and medicinal gardens are a thing of beauty. Follow a few tips that will guide you in developing your own herb garden, regardless of the space you have.

Whatever the style, size and complexity of the garden that you wish to create, the shapes, textures and scents of your medicinal and aromatic plants will invariably help to make this space more enjoyable.

• There is a great diversity of medicinal and aromatic plants to use in your garden.
• Whether in the form of ground covers, shrubs or trees, there are types for all climates, all soil types and all locations.
• Even if you live in an apartment, with the only outdoor space being a small balcony or window sill, you can still manage to grow herbs in a window box, flowerpot or gardener.
• Their resources are endless. The elderberry tree, for example, a tree or deciduous shrub that can reach a height of six metres produces clusters of small white fragrant flowers that attract bees in the summer and gives black berries in autumn.
• You can make pretty hedges with the elderberry tree, as well as collect its flowers and fruits to prepare syrups, wines, jams and jellies. Its leaves repel flies and mosquitoes while its flowers have therapeutic and cosmetic applications, and may be used to treat coughs, colds, allergies and arthritis, as well as to prepare tonics.

The form of your garden will depend on your lifestyle and your available space. From a garden that will impress the neighbours to a peaceful haven where you can relax, the possibilities are endless.

• A well designed garden can seem surprisingly simple, and leave nothing to reflect the creativity, talent and work that were necessary for its implementation.
• Other gardens, however, leave no doubt about the years of work that were required to provide for their design, implementation and maintenance. By allowing you to get new ideas and to observe different styles, travel can be a great source of inspiration.

Discover the type of garden you like that to help you determine how you'll recreate in your own garden.

• To help you with your project, follow the advice of landscape consultants and get inspired by their work.You can meet them or see their works and their websites.
• You may choose to design a garden in pots/containers for the cultivation of your favourite herbs.
• If you have room, you may wish to have an English garden, where trees and shrubs mingle with annuals, perennials and ground covers.
• You can also choose to create a classical garden dedicated to medicinal and aromatic herbs modeled on the beautiful boxwood embroidery of the French formal gardens created in England and France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Regardless of which style of garden you decide to plant, you'll be happy with being able to step outside your back door and enjoy the oasis you've designed for yourself.