By Andrew Bunting, VP of Horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
As a lifelong gardener and plant enthusiast, I’ve always been drawn to the versatility of herbs. Beyond cooking, herbs have incredible ornamental value as well. In my own garden in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, I’ve found that many culinary herbs offer beauty, structure, and resilience, making them ideal additions to both containers and garden beds.
After a quick stroll around my home garden in Swarthmore, I can quickly see several areas where I have used culinary herbs ornamentally. About five years ago, my front garden was a “tired” cottage garden in need of renovation. I was impressed with the gravel gardens at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College and at Chanticleer in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Inspired by those gardens, I removed six to eight inches of soil, installed ½” granite gravel, and planted many plants that I have observed that would thrive in these conditions.
Being in the front yard, all the plants had to be deer resistant. Many herbs that have their origins in the Mediterranean find these sunny, hot, well-drained conditions optimal for performing well. In years past I have struggled with growing lavenders well, probably due to soil being too heavy and lack of drainage, but in the gravel garden they have been completely hardy and have grown into large mounds over the past five years. I grow Lavandula x intermedia Phenomenal™. In the summer, it produces an abundance of spikes with lavender flowers. I leave the flower spikes on late in the summer and into the fall because it adds some architectural quality. Ultimately, I will prune off the flowering stems, leaving small shrubs for winter interest with attractive grey-silver foliage. Lavenders are completely deer resistant and are one of the best pollinator-attracting plants in the garden.
Also, thriving in the gravel garden is a low-growing selection of catmint, Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’. I use ‘Walker’s Low’ as a low ground covering or edging plant along the front walkway. It flowers in profusion in May with smokey blue flowers. Often after flowering, I give catmints a significant “haircut”. This is a good way to rejuvenate the plant and make it look fresh throughout the rest of the growing season. I have grown many other cultivars of catmint with equal success. On a recent trip to the large wholesale nursery, Walter’s Gardens in Michigan, I asked what their three top selling plants were. One was a daylily, another a hosta, and the third plant was Nepeta ‘Cat’s Pajamas’.
During the summer months, I use ornamental pots throughout the garden. I have them on a patio in the front in the gravel garden where they accent my front stoop. Many are used on the bluestone patio flanking the back of my house, while others are used to accent the summer house. Over the years, I have used many herbs for ornamental interest in pots. Many of the sages (Salvia officinalis) have very attractive foliage and can be used as a solo specimen in a container or to embellish other plantings. ‘Icternia’ has a splotch of dark green in the center framed with chartreuse towards the edge of the leaves. ‘Purpurascens’ has both green and purple leaves. ‘Tricolor’ is a suffusion of green, white, purple, and pink, and I love ‘Berggarten’ for its broad and bold foliage. Sages will thrive in well-drained soil in mostly sun.
Over the years, I have had several specimens of bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) on my patio or along the pathway in a container in the vegetable garden. I have grown it for its dark green, broad leaves and as a multi-stemmed shrub-like specimen, and on occasion I have had ones grown as standards with a single trunk and a clipped topiary-like ball at the top.
Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus (syn. Rosmarinus officinalis), like the lavenders, has narrow evergreen leaves. ‘Tuscan Blue’, ‘Arp’, ‘Salem’, and ‘Athens Blue Spires’ are all bushy, upright selections. Most rosemaries have very attractive blue flowers. I also like to use many of the prostrate or spilling types of rosemaries, i. e. ‘Prostratus’ or Prostrate Group for the foliage that spills over the edge of the container. While I have not added rosemary to the gravel garden, I am sure this would be a perfect condition for rosemary, which sometimes can struggle with hardiness in USDA Zone 7.
Over the last 25 years gardening in my home garden, I have found nearly all the herbs that I have used to be deer resistant, drought tolerant, pollinator supporting and adaptable for a changing climate. In addition to being important culinary herbs, they are also great ornamental plants. They are easy to grow, only requiring some deadheading of the sages, rosemary, and lavender and some occasional grooming throughout the summer and after the winter. This is just a snapshot of the many outstanding herbs that can be used aesthetically in the garden. Herbs have become some of the most reliable and rewarding plants in my garden, offering beauty, fragrance, and growing well season after season.
Join Andrew Bunting for his webinar Growing Herbs as Ornamental Plants in the Garden this Tuesday, October 21 at 1pm Eastern. He will explore how to grow and use herbs as aesthetic embellishments in the garden.
Our webinars are free to The Herb Society of America members and are available for viewing after signing into the Member Login page. Webinars are $20.00 for guests. Register by clicking here. Become a member today, and enjoy all of our webinars for free along with access to the webinar library with over fifty program titles.
Photo Credits: 1) An ornamental vignette of anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus), and a purple basil cultivar (Ocimum basilicum) (Erin Holden); 2) Lavandula sp. (Pexel); 3) A double-trunked standard of bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) (Erin Holden); 4) An ornamental pot containing a prostrate rosemary, sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Tricolor’), golden oregano (Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’) and a purple-leaved chile pepper cultivar (Erin Holden).
