A Color Based Garden With Herb Specimens

A color based garden using herbs can be an exciting landscape project. I wanted to give you some information on different herb tones that can be used in a garden. This is a great project if you want to match a garden with some tones of an outdoor feature. In the examples of landscape designs section, there is a complete herbal garden design. This design was created to give you ideas for a full herb garden area. I think it would be beneficial to get some ideas on different colors of certain herbs. When doing an herb garden, think about this being your very own special place, reflecting your personality. Besides color, think about the aroma that so many herb specimens produce. Lavender, Basil, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, just a few that come to mind. Also remember when doing any type of garden project, you have annuals, bi annuals and perennials. Arrange the annuals together and also the bi annuals and perennials. This will make maintaining the herb bed easier on you after the garden is finished. So many herbs have wonderful colored flowers. Lets look at a few different varieties that may work for you.

• A mauve to purple tone
  Catnip, Cumin, Lavender, Mint, Garden Sage, Winter Savory, and Woolly Thyme.


• Light pink to a rich deep color
  Burnet, Coriander, Pink Hyssop, and Winter Savory.


• White
  Burnet, Chamomile, Chervil, Horehound, Sweet Marjoram, White Poppy, White Sage, and Sweet Woodruff.


• Yellow to orange tones
  Lemon Balm, Dill, Sweet Fennel, Mustard, Tansy, and Marigold.


• Yellow to white tones
  Anise, Caraway, and French Tarragon.


• Light to deep blue
  Borage, Catnip, True Lavender, Rosemary, and Blue Hyssop.


• Crimson
  Red Bergamot, Ginger, Pineapple Sage, and Creeping Thyme.

Those are just a few different color blooms for you to think about. Foliage plays a big role in any garden and is the backbone of an herb garden. There are many different shades of leaves and stems of herb plants. Here are just a few for you.

• Dark green foliage
  Sweet Basil, Burnet, Chives, Horseradish, Hyssop, Marigold, Curly Leaf Parsley, Tansy, French Tarragon, Water Cress, and Summer Savory.


• Light green foliage
  Lemon Balm, Fennel, White Peppermint, Italian Leaf Parsley, Poppy, and Sorrel.


• Green and blue tones
  Dwarf Basil, Dill, and English Lavender.


• Green and gray tones
  Catnip, French Lavender, Spike Lavender, Marjoram, Apple Mint, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, and English Thyme.

Many of these herbs are also spices. Not only is color important, but take a look at some spices and herbs and get some descriptions of uses for some of these plants.The other tip I wanted to share with you on doing a tone theme herb garden is to know if your plants are annual, biannual or perennial. I could list pages of the hundreds of different herb specimens. I wanted to give you some of the the most popular herbs.

Annuals
Basil, Borage, Chervil, Dill, Fennel, Sweet Marjoram, and Summer Savory.

Bi annuals
Angelica, Caraway, and Parsley.

Perennials
Wild Bergamot, Burnet, Chamomile, Catnip, Chives, Horehound, Lovage, variety of Mints, Rosemary, Rue, Sage, Winter Savory, Sorrel, French Tarragon, English and Lemon Thyme, and Lemon Verbena.

So now we can think about not only the color of the foliage and flowers, but what to plant as an annual, bi annual, and perennial.

The last thing to think about is where to place different herbs in your landscape area. Although most herbs thrive in sunny locations, there are some that will do well in shaded areas. Chervil, Parsley, Lemon Balm, Garden Burnet, Mints, French Tarragon, Woolly Thyme and Sweet Woodruff will all do well in full or partial shade. Most other herbs can take full sun. Some of the popular herbs are Anise, German Chamomile, Dill, Coriander, Oregano, Sesame,Parsley, Catnip, Chives, Lavenders, Mints, Parsley, Sage, Thyme and Basil.

I hope this page has helped you in planning a special one or two tone herb garden.