Planting a Backyard Herb Garden

Patch Magic Herb Garden Throw


Pick out a choice spot for your new herb garden. You have to decide how large it should be and what herbs you wish to plant. Fortunately, herb gardens do not require a lot of space. You need to pick a spot that doesn’t interfere with the traffic pattern of your yard, does not infringe on play area, is convenient to your water supply, and also is easily accessible to the kitchen, since these herbs will be used for cooking as well.

Once that has been decided, you need to till the ground, using either a hoe or a tiller.  Rake to get rid of grass, weeds, and stones. You are now ready to plant your herbs.  You will need the following:

• A variety of herbs that you will use for cooking
• Full instructions as to how far apart to plant each type of herb
• Hand shovel
• Water
• A notebook and pencil, to record what you planted, where, and what date

Your plants should be planted 1-2 inches deep, so make your hole, fill it with water, gently break apart the roots, and then place one in each hole. Cover all the roots with soil and water again.

Be aware that some herbs are perennial and some are biennial.  Ladybugs, bees and praying mantis are good for your plants. Make sure that they are getting the right amount of sun and water. Once they are safely established, the more you prune and trim them, the fuller and more productive they will be.

Be aware that some herbs, like oregano, garlic, and basil, grow tall and somewhat spindly.  Mint is a lovely, very green plant, with a light aroma.  Rosemary is spindly and very strong smelling.  Parsley, especially the curly leaf variety, is a full, low,  bushy, bright green plant that makes a lovely border for your herb garden.

Herb: Spearmint Perennial 2 Plants from my garden

Aerogarden 3 Elite Hydroponics system garden herb white

Square Foot Gardening

If you haven’t heard of square foot gardening, you’re about to learn one of the most useful and versatile gardening techniques ever created. Conceived by Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, the techniques have been enthusiastically adopted by gardeners all over the world. Square foot gardening is eminently suited for container gardening, patio and roof gardening, backyard gardening, organic gardening, herb gardens, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and more.

The basic concept is to start small – the unit of measure is the square foot. Although Bartholomew’s original square foot garden was four feet square, many schools, community gardens and home gardeners start even smaller – a couple of one square foot containers is plenty to get you started. According to Bartholomew though, a four square foot garden provides just enough harvest for one person.

How to Create A Square Foot Garden

Creating your own square foot garden is as easy as building (or buying) a box in which to garden. My own first square foot garden was a two square foot garden on the cement apron outside my back door in a city apartment. I used four square wicker plastic lined wicker wastebaskets bought for a dollar apiece at the All-for-a-Buck store. Any container that can hold 6-8” of dirt, and has drainage holes in the bottom will work. The biggest requirement for location is sun – choose a nice, sunny spot to place your garden.

Did I say dirt? Amend that. Bartholomew recommends what he calls ‘Mel’s mix’ instead of soil. Mix 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost to fill the squares of your box or container. A 10 pound bag of each was plenty to fill my little 2 square foot garden.

Choosing and Laying Out the Plants for Your Square Foot Garden

The most important factor in laying out your garden is the one-square-foot grid. You’ll be planting one type of plant in each square – how many of them depends on the recommended spacing between plants – which you’ll find on the back of the seed packets. Depending on the needs of the specific seedlings, you can plant 1, 4,  9 or 16 plants in each square. To break it down - if the recommendation on the seed packet is 1 foot apart, you can plant 1 in a square. If they need six inches between plants, you can plant 4. Two inches gives you room for 9 plants, and one inch spacing means you can fit 16 plants into one square foot.

My own first square foot garden was a spaghetti garden with this layout:

   1 Basil Plant  4 Tomato plants

   1 Oregano Plant 16 Onion plants

After You Harvest Your Square Foot Garden

Harvest the crop in each square foot when it’s ready, and continue harvesting until it’s no longer producing fruit/vegetables. At that point, uproot the plants in that square (use them for compost!), and plant another, different crop. By refilling and rotating the crops, you avoid depleting the natural nutrients of the soil, and keep every bit of space productive throughout an entire growing season.