Need help planning a medical herb garden layout

[KittyKittenMittens]

So I'm planning a medical herb garden I have atleast 40+ plants and still adding. The back yard is mostly full soon. Front half shade. Pretty large yard. And I have a small greenhouse. That unfortunately is on the sunniest spot in the yard. I can move it if needed. But it is a full sprinkler system greenhouse. I'll paste a list of herbs soon I have to find them all

[KittyKittenMittens]

Echinacea
Borage
Tuberose
Nettle
Skull cap
Hyssop
Lemon balm
Catnip
Milk thistle
Peppermint
Yarrow
Chamomile
St Johns wort
Burdock
Fever few
valerian
Bergamot
Mullen
Wormwood
Mugwort
White sage

[KittyKittenMittens]

And still adding herbs to the list as I find them. It's hard to remember what seeds you have most are in a freezer in storage that isn't opened but once a yr.

[tomc]

Skullcap needs about 80% shade. Valerian & St Johnswort need full sun. I've grown those three.

More than a lot of nitrogen in their beds they need a reserve of carbon. in Jacksonville.

[KittyKittenMittens]

Skullcap needs about 80% shade. Valerian & St Johnswort need full sun. I've grown those three.

More than a lot of nitrogen in their beds they need a reserve of carbon. in Jacksonville.

Skullcap needs shade??? They didn't tell me that! Lol I thought it was full sun. I have perfect spot for it then. The front of my house has a garden bed. But from the angle of my house its shaded most of the day but maybe around noon there is some varigated sun

[imafan26]

Yarrow can be invasive so contain it in a pot. Lemon balm and all of the other mints are also invasive so best contained.

Some other herbs to think about gotu kola (wounds) is a spreading plant can be used as a ground cover but can be invasive keep it contained in a pot.
Vervain- from the Romans. Tall shrub, will reseed
Aloe- good for small cuts and burns

[KittyKittenMittens]

Yarrow can be invasive so contain it in a pot. Lemon balm and all of the other mints are also invasive so best contained.

Some other herbs to think about gotu kola (wounds) is a spreading plant can be used as a ground cover but can be invasive keep it contained in a pot.
Vervain- from the Romans. Tall shrub, will reseed
Aloe- good for small cuts and burns

What about if I make beds with plastic lining 3ft down and around the edges to keep roots from wondering?

And thankyou for the other plants. I'm still adding to my list and was going to visit my local nursery for already grown plants. I'll see if they have any of what you suggested

[rainbowgardener]

no, no. The plastic will hold all the water in. It will be like growing plants in a bathtub or a swamp; they will drown.

If your beds are that deep, roots probably won't escape them very soon. I did grow lemon balm in the ground. It popped up other places in the yard and the clumps got bigger, but if it was somewhere I didn't want it, I just pulled it. I didn't see that it was a problem.

[KittyKittenMittens]

I meant root mesh, I call it plastic. Bit my beds themselves art that deep. They are raisedoing about half foot. I'm just worried for them to sneak under the edging

[rainbowgardener]

OK, sorry. Sometimes people write in here that are real beginners.

I've never used the mesh root barriers. I think they are usually used to prevent damage from tree roots. I guess it can't hurt anything if it is permeable enough, but seems a little like over kill.

[applestar]

On the whole, I think best way to manage plants that spread is to periodically dig a trench around the bed with 1/2 moon edging tool or sharp shovel and fill with loose material like mulch. (Basically reverse of what professional landscapers do with lawn grass). Check for escapees in the mulched trench when you weed and pull them. This way you also have the option of enlarging the bed if you need to. Re-trench with tools if they get ahead of you.

A bed surrounded by concrete driveway, walkway and building foundation is another handy spot for most perennials, though some bamboo and brambles can manage to emerge from the other side of walkway/sidewalk, and stronger rooted trees, etc. can cause structural damage.

FWIW -- I have some mints growing in ground beds that won't come out onto the lawn because the lawn sod is too dense from all the nutrients that seep out of the beds and I walk along there all the time, making the the ground too compacted. It's easier for them to grow in the looser soil of the bed and along the border of the bed. The stolons that are growing along the border is loosely rooted and pull out easily -- and yes I yank them out to dry out in the sun then put them in the compost. (But if you are making products with them, these roots are also intensely minty as well and I imagine could be used in tinctures, etc. extracts.)

[KittyKittenMittens]

I didn't think about the concrete idea.
I have a giant triangle in the front made by my drive way and a walk way. I can stick the mint there! I'm not sure how much sun it gets. I was actually going to put a tree there. But if this works out I'll have to find a new location for that tree (a sapling that great right in the way of everything that I refuse to just kill) maybe as a gift to someone else lol

[KittyKittenMittens]

Grew* ugh. Posting from my phone sucks. Lol and it's difficult to click that edit button from here.
Do you guys know any ideas for grouping the plants?

[rainbowgardener]

Isn't that what we already talked about in your other thread:

Then you want to group which herbs go in which beds so that the ones that have similar needs for sun, water and soil are together. I even gave you a few suggestions of which ones might go together...

[applestar]

KKM -- do you want the two threads to be merged together? PM ME.

[imafan26]

Where you live, your climate might help control the herbs. Yarrow, the mint family will spread by runners and if you don't contain them they are hard to stop. If you can do as Apple said and make sure you don't let the runners spread that will work. I have mint, gotu kola, and yomogi that has gone wild and I am constantly having to dig them up. It is hard to get all the pieces. The mint escaped from a pot and the yomogi is coming from another garden. Yomogi will spread from runners and seed. The gotu kola reseeded. I also have plantain that is reseeding in my garden and pathways and always have to be removed. I asked the medicinal hui to cut the flower heads of the plantain to slow the reseeding as well as the vervain which also reseeds readily. I have wild black sesame also growing in the culinary garden that came from the Children's garden over 200 ft away.

[KittyKittenMittens]

Merging would be nice. I asked here again because I figured it would get more veiws. And won't the end invasive plants fight against each other for root space and or smother the nonend invasive ones? That's what I'm worried about when it comes tout sorting by needs

[Susan W]

Getting back to this after 1 week away. I'll throw out some suggestions, based on what I grow in ground and lots of containers.
I use many large containers (14 -18") for the culinary herbs and other plants. Most are up on pallets to help with drainage and keep some of the ground crawlies from crawling in. The smaller 10 and 12" on shelves. I'll post a couple of pics to give an idea. The advantage for me is the plants stay contained, weeding isn't a big issue, the surface is up where my older bones can deal with it. Also, if one area doesn't work out (too much sun or shade) can move the container. It also matters the size of the plants, how many you have of one kind etc.

Perhaps as you get used to your new digs, can put in a couple of small beds and use containers. Work WITH the plants and their likes.

Check my post on Benign Neglect in What doesn't fit category.
I'll think of more!

[imafan26]

I agree with Susan. I maintain an herb garden and grow a variety of herbs. The soil there is not the best as the drainage is poor. I keep mint in pots because of their invasiveness and I also keep lavender, Jamaican oregano, marjoram and Russian sage in large pots because they would eventually rot in the wet soil. I have a fig in a raised bed to keep it out of the wet soil but also to contain the roots longer.

I cannot grow too many perennial herbs because of the wet soil unless they are shallow rooted ( less than 10 inches). The deeper rooted plants will die from phythoptora when their roots go below a foot. I end up growing a lot of onions and annuals in the garden. Basil, sesame, perilla, culantro all reseed. I have to transplant them where I want them to grow and the ones growing between the pavers cannot be saved and have to be pulled out. I only want a few fennel for the garden, so I cut off the seed heads and that has kept them from spreading. Fennel tastes great, but is not friendly to other plants. Fennel is also the main protection for the herb garden. It is an aphid trap, but the ladybugs will lay their eggs there to feed on the aphids. Fennel blooms for a long time providing pollen and nectar to a wide range of beneficial insects like ladybugs, lacewings, tachinid flies, parasitic wasps, and bees.

I used to also take care of the medicinal garden, but it was too much work to take care of both the culinary and medicinal garden without help, so for a long time all we did was weed it once a month. Now, there is a medicinal hui that is doing that. They have a larger group, but they still primarily only work in it once a month.

I have a couple of people helping me in the herb garden and we work on it on most Fridays and some people will come in between and weed. Weeding is the biggest chore and my goal every week is to pull at least one large bag of weeds or fill the 55 gallon drum (same size as the bag). I have already dug up the arrowroot and I still have to dig up the horseradish. I have planted some of the garlic, but I still have space, so I am probably going to plant a few more. I have some peppers to decide whether to put them out in the garden or give them a decent burial and I have to replace the marjoram again. Turmeric and ginger are blooming but it will be a couple of months before I have to dig them up. I have to work on the irrigation system.

Herb gardens are usually not that hard to grow, if you select the herbs best suited for your climate and soil conditions or keep some of them in pots, but you will be spending a lot of time in maintenance.