hi I am a complete newbie and I want to start growing herbs and vegies. bought my first rosemary plant the other day and it has inspired me to do a whole garden. I know that some herbs grow better when planted together and some don't. would really like to plant some sage, thyme, mint, basil, oregano, rocket, rosemary, and some fennel. if anyone can recommend what order I put them in it would be greatly appriceated. am wanting to do it in nice neat rows or if someone thinks they would be better in pots please let me know and whether I should do raised garden beds or not? any help tips pointers or advice is welcome hope to here from anyone
thankyou
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rainbowgardener
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To start with QLD is Queensland, Australia, right? So you are going into winter, but your winters are pretty mild without freezes, right?mcmags wrote:hi I am a complete newbie and I want to start growing herbs and vegies. bought my first rosemary plant the other day and it has inspired me to do a whole garden. I know that some herbs grow better when planted together and some don't. would really like to plant some sage, thyme, mint, basil, oregano, rocket, rosemary, and some fennel. if anyone can recommend what order I put them in it would be greatly appriceated. am wanting to do it in nice neat rows or if someone thinks they would be better in pots please let me know and whether I should do raised garden beds or not? any help tips pointers or advice is welcome hope to here from anyone
thankyou
It helps to sort the plants out by annuals and perennials. Thyme, mint, sage, oregano, rosemary are perennials. Fennel comes in annual and perennial forms and I'm not familiar with rocket. It's best not to plant annuals and perennials together because the perennials are going to be spreading and you would always be disturbing there roots digging up annuals.
Mint is definitely best in a pot, because it spreads aggressively by roots and will take over your whole garden. Give it a large pot all by itself. Basil does quite well in large pots, but could also be planted in the ground.
The next step is to group by moisture requirement. Thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary all like hot, dry and well drained. The basil, fennel, and mint need more water.
Raised beds is really a matter of preference. I garden a lot in raised beds and like them. For all your plants that like well drained, the raised beds help with drainage. But it is certainly not necessary. Depends a lot on your soil too. If you have decent soil, there's less reason to do a raised bed. If you have bad soil, either extreme of really heavy clay or very sandy, it is much easier to build a bed and fill it with good soil than try to make what you have good.
Again, it is a matter of personal preference, but I'm not a big fan of "nice neat rows." That isn't how things grow in nature. If you are doing an herb garden of mixed perennials (the thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary) you are only going to want 2-3 plants of each (at most! I have ONE big old sage plant and it gives me way more sage than I know what to do with, and I dry some and distill some....). Even if you were to start them in rows, they will grow how they grow anyway. I would make a nice circle bed with tall ones (sage, rosemary) in the middle and sprawling creeping ones (thyme, oregano) around the edges.
Hope this helps a little, there's a lot to think about at first, getting started.
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rainbowgardener
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