Mini Herb Gardens & Gardens for Your Personality
The size of a mini herb garden is relative to a person's opinion. Following standard or traditional herb garden sizes though, a mini herb garden is about twelve square feet. It usually can comfortably grow about three to four different types of herbs with roughly two to four plants per herb type. This number of herbs can make your garden a bit crowded as the plants grow though. Remember to take into consideration how tall and wide your herbs can become. If you want to maintain small herbs, and keep transplanting larger ones to give away, then two to four plants per herb should be fine.
Like window herb gardens, you cannot grow mint in this garden because of its aggressive growth characteristic. You can choose to have containers on one side of your mini herb garden in which you plant aggressive growing plants or plants that are not suitable companions for your herbs. If you have a porch by the mini herb garden, containers can go on the porch as well.
One of the perks of having a mini herb garden is that you can invest in good soil and fertilizer for your garden, and it won't cost as much compared to having a larger plot for herbs. In general, mini herb gardens are cheaper because there is less to take care of. Requiring less attention and care, it's one way you can enjoy the benefits of herb gardening with less hassle.
There are some whose opinion on mini herb gardens means having three or four herbs in a very large terra cota pot. This is like container gardening or window box gardening though, and while it's true that the size of the garden is small, it doesn't have the features of a traditional mini herb garden which is grown into the ground.
What Herb Garden Design Goes Best with Your Personality
It's been noted several times on this site that at the end of the day you should be happy with the type of herb garden you have. You should be happy with the herbs growing in them, the way the herbs are planted (or design), and you should be happy with how much work goes into each garden. The best way to do this is to know yourself. After learning about herbs and the ways in which they can be planted, it's time to pair yourself with a garden that suits your personality.
The classic herb gardens all need a considerable amount of work in the beginning. You need to prepare a lot of soil and ground, and make measurements for different plants and shapes. You also have to attend to planting the plants perfectly, and being patient as they grow to create the shapes you chose. If you have a lot of patience, and you like neatness, clean lines, interesting shapes, and you don't mind doing a lot of gardening and pruning, then you can consider one of the classic gardens. This is especially true if you have a large yard to work with.
Remember that your entire yard doesn't have to go to herbs. You can have one knot design or one small geometric design and the rest of the garden can be a lawn of grass. It's the formal garden with it's centerpiece and walkways that will need a good amount of space. A formal garden can still be miniaturized, if you really want, though, and you can have it off to one side of your lawn.
