How to Create the Perfect Outdoor Herb Garden

Herbs can add finesse to any meal. Rosemary added to a rack of lamb, sage added to a turkey stuffing mix, or mint sprinkled in a salad can transform an everyday dish into a meal to remember. What's even better is if you can say that you cultivated the herbs with your own love and care. Creating your own herb garden is a great idea if you want access to a huge stock of delicious herbs that are free of chemicals and pesticides. But doing so is not quite as simple as throwing down some seedlings in your back garden. Here is how you can create a herb garden that will thrive:

Design is key. Garden design is not something that is limited to ornamental gardens, you also have to take things like space and placement into consideration when you are planting herbs. Herbs thrive in sunny weather so make sure that you choose the best place in your garden for optimal growth instead of against the side of a wall that casts a shadow throughout the day.

Different herbs also require different amounts of space to grow and this should be taken into account when seedlings are planted. For example, rosemary needs more space than most, and a diametre of around a metre is needed for the plant to grow successfully in a bed of soil.

For help with the overall design of your garden, consult companies like Ocean Road Landscaping.

Prepare the soil. The soil will provide a home for your delicious herbs, and so you have to take care of that soil lovingly. For the soil to be a good home, it can't be compacted. Break up the soil so that oxygen, water, and the plant roots can also find their way into the earth.

If you have clay soil in your garden, you may want to drive to your nearest garden centre and invest in some different earth as clay is very compact and not ideal for herb growth. A sandy or silty soil would be preferable.

Feed your herbs. One of the great benefits of herbs is they are pretty low maintenance and don't require so much fertiliser in the way that fruits and vegetables do. But if you would like to give them a helping hand in their growth, you should use all natural solutions to ensure your herbs are totally safe to consume. Fish emulsion, a substance made from ground up fish and the faeces of fish, is more often than not organic, and your herbs will love it.