Herb Bed

Hi,

I made some raised beds (approx 1m x 2m in size) last year and am just now planting them up. I want to give one over to herbs, both for culinary purposes but also, as the bed is at the front of the house, to look nice and attract pollinators. I'd also like it to be as perennial as possible so that I'm not having to re-plant it every year.
Would you please be so kind as to make suggestions for attractive, perrenial (or self-seeding) plants to go for?
So far I'm considering some or all of these - are any of these hard to get going in northern climes (Yorks)? And am I best planting all in pots/trays under cover first?

Sage, Chives, Garlic, Lemon Verbena, Garlic Chives, Chamomile, Pineapple Mint, Fennel, Thyme, Echinacea, Tarragon, Parsley, California Poppies, Sweet Cicely, Lovage.

Finally, is there such a thing as chocolate mint (like peppermint but with dark leaves and a taste like After 8 mints?!) - I'm sure I remember it from years back but can't seem to find it anywhere.

Thanks for all advice as I am a complete novice at this gardening lark

 

I don't know much about Lemon Verbena, Sweet Cicely or Lovage, but all the rest will be OK in our northern climate. You might lose the Echinacea over winter though.

I did a google for 'chocolate mint plants', and found plenty of results that matched your description in all except colour. All the ones I looked at were the regular green.

 

Andy you seem to have come up with some good suggestions of your own - I agree with Clueless1 they should be OK. Never heard of a Chocolate Mint but sounds good to me!

 

A couple of herbs I can recommend are Oregano and Hyssop.
Both are perennials, very attractive to bees and will self seed quite happily.

 

I have chocolate mint bottom right in this picture.

It is green but it does acquire a more purple hue to it in the Autumn.

 

Here is my chocolate mint, photographed this morning - just recovering after the winter. The veins and stems of the leaves are a lovely chocolate brown colour in summer - and,.... well,.... with a bit of imagination it does taste a little like After8's



a-a

 

Thanks for your help and suggestions everyone, I'll definately add Oregano and Hyssop to my list. Time to get preparing the soil and ordering seeds I think seeing as the sunshine is finally here.
And yes, thanks Alex-Adam that is definately the mint I was thinking of

 

Lovage is nice, but it can grow very big, so you need to prune it hard all season. It loses its leaves over winter.

 

Thanks for your help everyone. Got some thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary, chives, sage and my chocolate mint in this weekend as small plants and planted some garlic chive, lovage and parsley seeds indoors. Off to the local horticulture centre tomorrow in search of the other stuff mentioned above. Whatever they don't have I'll order seeds for this week. Cheers.

 

Good choices!

Perennial and attracts wildlife = Lavendar, although not a culinary herb obviously.

Bees etc also love Fennel, you can also find little snails like to roost on the stems, I don't think they eat it though.

 

Yeah, I'm avoiding lavender in the front purely because I already have a shed load of it in the back garden. Definately want to get some fennel seeds planted this week cos I love the look and the taste of it, but thanks for the tip about snails, I'll keep my beady eye out for 'em!

 

Well, the herb patch was a big success last year, and got well used. After our mild winter most of it (sage, lemon verbena, parsley, chives etc etc) seem set to bounce back but I'm unsure about the chocolate and pineapple mint and the thyme...seems to be a fair amount of woody growth at the bottom of all with straggly, inedible stuff at the top. Should I have brought these inside over winter maybe, or taken cuttings last summer?
The mint's sunk into the bed in pots in an effort to restrict root spread, not certain as yet how successful that has been til I get chance to poke around in the soil.
Is there anything I can do to get mint and thyme bouncing back or does it need pulling out and re-planting annually? Thanks :-)

 

I'm not sure about the Thyme but the mint should soon wake up once it gets warmer,you can cut it right back and it will soon shoot up again with healthy fresh shoots

 

My Thyme is the same, I was thinking it would be okay until I read this yesterday: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/herbs/msg0317584918912.html

Annoying as I was planning on making a mini-hedge-border thing with them :(

 

Thyme is very hardy in my experience at least, I've seen it survive perfectly fine after spending several weeks buried under snow, cutting ice cold winds, whatever the weather throws at it.

However, it is not quite as low maintenance as some think. If you don't keep it trimmed, it quickly becomes leggy, with loads of useless stuff on it and just a few leaves at the top. And it is remarkably easy to kill, not by cold, but by shade and/or damp. Thyme hates shade, and it hates damp. It will just give up. Growing it close to mint for example is a bit risky in my opinion. Sage and mint are like chalk and cheese when it comes to requirements. Mint will tolerate a bit of shade, and is happy if the soil stays wet for a few weeks during and after heavy rain. Mint grows a lot taller than thyme and will put the thyme in shade, which thyme hates, and again the soil preferences of mint are very much not the soil preferences of thyme.

Lots of people have success with thyme as a very low hedge, but the important point is that it gets all the available daylight, and is in well drained soil. Oh, and gets its haircut regularly to stop it getting leggy.