Gardening with Herbs

July 29, 2013 | By webadmin

While we all know that herbs are a staple of the traditional kitchen garden, did you know that herbs can also make tough landscape plants? Our gardening climate can be tough here in the DFW area; but it's actually a good growing environment for many of our favorite herbs.

You can think about culinary herbs in the garden in a couple of ways: Those that provide a backdrop for more colorful garden plants, and those that themselves provide standout accent color or blooms. A sturdy evergreen herb like Rosemary makes the perfect background or foundation shrub, with its masses of emerald green foliage that thrives year-round. The trailing form of Rosemary also makes an excellent screen for unsightly retaining walls. Garden sage, Lemon Verbena, Greek Oregano, Mint, Rue and Terragon also work as excellent background plants.

Use herbs with more unusual features or colors as accents or focal points in the garden. Chives, which produce vertical strap-like foliage and white or pink blooms act as an ornamental accent in the garden. Society Garlic, with its tall leaves and purple blooms is a favorite ornamental in Texas landscapes. Lavender, with its silvery foliage and blooms in white, pink and purple, make for a most desireable accent plant that provides the added bonus of fragrance. Thyme and creeping Thyme make excellent blooming borders for the edges of landscape beds.

During our cool season, certain herbs can become the stars of the garden. Bronze Fennel produces feathery masses of stunning bronze foliage from fall through spring; then it puts on huge umbel shaped blooms on tall spikes in late spring. Green Fennel and Dill do the same. All of these plants are also hosts for butterflies. Curly leaf parsley becomes a striking emerald green border, perfect for mixing with violas and pansies.

Herbs also make excellent container specimens. Choose patio or front door pottery in colors that compliment your home or garden, then fill with herbs such as Basil, Thyme, Trailing Oregano, Trailing Rosemary and much more. If you have an outdoor kitchen, or we're designing and installing one for you, you can include pots of herbs or incorporate them into the surrounding landscape.

Herbs are excellent companions to other Texas Tough ornamentals like Roses, Artemesia and ornamental grasses. Don't have room for a separate kitchen garden? No worries! We can help integrate herbs into your ornamental landscape design.