'Random' Herb Placement Adds Zest to a Formal Garden Plan

With road trips a part of my life these days, I have to be realistic. Much as I enjoy it, veggie growing isn’t in the picture. Which made it all the more exciting when garden designers started a trend of mixing perennials and herbs or even veggies. Now THAT I can manage. 

Plan was begin to let favorite herbs scatter at will,  hither-and-yon through my flower beds. Instead of tossing out excessively aggressive herbs, I deliberately replanted them wherever there was a hole. It worked, sometimes too well if the newcomer began to crowd out the neighboring stand of iris or astilbe. Still, whatever classical formal gardeners might say about the results, I am enjoying them on many fronts. I have come to see the herb-laced garden as a logical extension of the English garden principle:  work hard to cultivate the look of the 'wild' and the 'natural'.

Beside the element of surprise, an exciting byproduct of such ‘random’ herb gardening is the smell. Many herbs have a distinctive and pungent aroma...hence their use in cooking. So, every time it rains in the garden or even when I brush against an herb basking in the sun, I am rewarded with that same wonderful scent. Weeding becomes an absolute joy as I reach among the leaves to get a hand on the offending wild grasses, thistles or dandelions.

Over the next couple of days, I’ll wander the beds with my point-and-shoot and come up with some examples.