How2Day: Sizes for Herb Gardens

Planting herbs is fun and rewarding. Leander Baerenz/Digital Vision/Getty Images
Herbs gardens are aromatic, colorful and offer culinary rewards. However, spacing herbs can be a challenge because there is such an abundance of herbs with different characteristics. When determining the size of your herb garden, knowing your needs is as important as finding the right location.

Many gardeners find that using pots to plant their herb gardens offers an easy, space-saving alternative to large gardens. The size of these gardens will depend on the number of herbs planted. To accurately assess the size of your herb garden container the Utah State University Extension explains that the pot size can be determined from the mature plant size. "At maturity, herbs have root systems a little larger than their top growth. Therefore, it is important to choose a container large enough to allow space for roots to grow." The web site goes on to assert that the general rule is that each herb should have at least one gallon of potting soil. This means that in a three gallon pot most gardeners should expect to plant three different herbs.

Kitchen herb gardens include the herbs that can be useful in a wide variety of culinary creations. Some of the most common include basil, cilantro, oregano, rosemary and thyme. However, kitchen gardeners can choose whichever herbs they are most likely to use. According to West Virginia University Extension, a kitchen garden that encompasses all of the most common kitchen herbs is 20 by 4 feet with individual 12 by 18 inch plots for each herb variety. In a garden of this size, it is important to keep annuals and perennials separate to avoid pulling out perennials after the growing season is completed.

Perennial herbs such as rosemary, mint, onion chives and bergamot are often grown for their culinary value. These herbs can be planted in groupings of almost any size. However, a perennial herb garden should be large enough to allow each plant to spread. For example rosemary may spread into a small shrub if allowed to expand. These gardens tend to be larger in scale and plants should be spaced farther apart to allow for years of growth.

How2Day