The best herbs for small gardens can be both annual and perennial herbs. The trick is to find herbs that have an upright, compact growing habit.
Best Herbs for Small Gardens
Over on our Facebook Group, The Christian Herbalists at Home Garden Joy, I asked readers what they’d like to learn. My readers did not disappoint and came up with a group of wonderful ideas and questions which I’m delighted to respond to in a series of articles this winter on herbs, herbalism, and all things growing your way to health.
An excellent book, if you are interested in finding a book to help you grow herbs at home, is Homegrown Herbs: A Complete Guide. (Disclosure: Amazon affiliate link). It covers all of the gardening basics from growing herbs and include specific informaton on seed starting, harvesting, and more.
Christian Herbalists at Home Garden Joy
Before talking about the best herbs for small gardens, let me give a brief shout-out for our group – Christian Herbalists at Home Garden Joy.
Last June during my morning prayer period, God put it on my heart to start a group for Catholic herbalists. As a devout Roman Catholic, I find it difficult to study herbs with any of the teachers I’d like to because many infuse their work with pagan ideals. I can’t go that route. I won’t go that route. And so I have learned how to filter my herbal knowledge through the questions of, “Is this something I can study while still being a follower of Jesus Christ?”
As I sat with that thought, I realized I needed to expand the idea of a Catholic herbalist group to encompass all Christians, everywhere. Christian herbalists often feel excluded or nervous about studying the healing power of plants because of the pagan culture surrounding much of what passes for modern herbalism.
I started Christian Herbalists at Home Garden Joy as a Facebook group so that Christians could gather without fear of people talking about things outside of our faith in relation to healing with plants. Soon, without any advertising, the group grew to 400 people.
If you are a Christian herbalist or just interested in healing through natural health, please visit our group and join us.
Herbs for Small Gardens
Herbs are useful plants that can be grown for flavor, medicine, or both. Most herbs that are good for small gardens feature a compact and upright growing habit.
Plants are often described as “upright” or “prostrate.” An upright plant grows towards the sky, as the name suggests, without much sprawl. “Prostrate” or “creeping” plants remain low to the ground.
Here’s a picture to illustrate what I mean. This is my herb garden. I have a small, circular pond in it with four paving stones arranged decoratively around the pond. Between the stones, I have planted two types of thyme: creeping and upright.
The best herbs for small gardens tend to be upright. Cat not included.
These two thyme varieties are both interchangeable in culinary dishes. Sprinkle creeping thyme onto pasta or upright thyme and you can’t tell the difference.
But note the growth habit. The upright thyme (with the white flowers) takes up much less room than the prostrate or creeping thyme. The creeping thyme spreads so vigorously in a thick mat that I have to cut it back several times a year. It’s so aggressive it will even spill over the lip of the pond and set down roots in the mud at the bottom of my shallow pond.
For small herb gardens, you’ll want to find plants that stay small. I happen to love basil and with plenty of pruning, a small basil plant works quite well in a small herb garden.
There are over a dozen varieties of basil, too, so don’t limit yourself to the sweet basil most often found in the garden center. Genovese or sweet basil offers plenty of culinary and medicinal uses, but there are lime basils, lemon basils, and cinnamon basil, which I have grown for teas. All are available to start from seed; you can find seeds from major catalogs such as Parks or Burpee as well as smaller, local growers.
Cinnamon basil tastes like an infusion of the two herbs. Although it grows to about 1-2 feet tall, it retains a compact shape, making it good for small gardens.
Genovese or sweet basil.
When planning your herbs for small gardens, be sure to plan for an area that receives full sunlight. Some herbs, such as oregano and the mints, can withstand shade or partial sun, but they do spread out vigorously and are not well-suited to small gardens.
Other herbs for small gardens include:
- Basil – all varieties
- Rosemary
- Parsley – both curly and flat leaf varieties
- Chives – onion chives, garlic chives
- Tarragon
All of these plants make great kitchen windowsill herbs, too.
Whether you are growing herbs in pots or containers, a small garden or an area like my little area near the pond, think tall, think upright, and think compact when choosing your herbs for small gardens.
