When you set about planning your herb garden layout, your clipboard, pen and paper are as important as your hoe and shovel. Find a place that gets at least six hours of sun each day. Very few herbs will grow in the shade, and they are mostly undesirable perennial herbs like invasive mints. Sketch the area on paper.

Choose the herbs you want to have in your garden. Some people plant herbs because they are low maintenance and drought tolerant. Others love the full, spreading habits of herbs like lavender and oregano or the creepers like wooly thyme.

Your herb garden layout should follow the same rules as any garden layout. This is the same basic rule for photographers, tall ones at the back, middle sized in the middle and short ones in front.

Tall Herb Plants

In any garden layout, herbs that are the tallest should be placed at the back of the border. This way, they won’t take away all the sun from the shorter plants. Anise hyssop is a plant that you can place at the back of the border since it grows up to six feet tall. Sweet cicely is one herb that can grow in full or partial shade, it also grows up to four feet tall.

Cardoon is a plant that grows up to five feet tall and is a cousin of the artichoke.

Midsize Herb Plants

Plan to place midsize herb garden plants into the middle of your herb garden layout. Most herbs are of this size – 18 inches to 36 inches tall. Examples of middle sized plants are sage, they grow up to two feet tall.S. and is often used with roasted meats. Silver thyme (thymus vulgaris) – grows up to one foot tall; desirable for its silver leaves and small purple flowers; can be harvested year-round. Rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) – grows up to two feet tall; prized for its strong flavor and fragrance, rosemary is often added to soups and stews that must be simmered for long period of time.

Short Herb Plants

Along the front of the border are the creepers: herb plants that grow close to the ground. Once you plant these ground covers, your herb garden layout is complete. They are usually grown to be ornaments. Wooly thyme, Corsican mint and roman chamomile are examples of low-growing herbs.