Knock Off the Old Knot Garden? NOT!

All romance aside, to create a tidy, geometric framework for your herb garden, first decide on the basic outline of the area you have available, then use and repeat related geometric shapes and dimensions to delineate the paths and planting beds. (The four-square or four-rectangle approach simplifies this part of the process!) Here is a detailed description of The Knot Garden by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, -- a wonderful modern interpretation and application of this method!

Here is yet another consideration: Using raised beds will not only accentuate the design; it will also enable the gardener to accommodate the herbs' individual cultural preferences -- important for reduced maintenance and optimum appearance! In any case, edge the planting beds neatly with whatever material you have at hand (or suit your taste!): bricks or boards or cobbles or sea shells or even terra cotta tiles or cedar shakes.

Then use a coordinated paving for the paths: carefully raked gravel, brick, cobbles, concrete step stones, grass, whatever pleases you and fits in with other materials used in your garden.

Now add a tidy short hedge or a fence to define the area. A picket style is traditional but by no means a requirement. If you are thinking "Williamsburg" (as in historic Williamsburg, Virginia) in terms of style here, you might enjoy this studious but fascinating Williamsburg Perspective on Colonial Gardens from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

In any case, for your overall theme, stick with a style and material and color related to or compatible with the style of your house or whatever other structures or over-riding features are in view.

Select the herb garden central feature or main focal point with care. It should have some height to it, at LEAST three or four feet. It might be a water feature (check my earlier water feature articles for easy and "doable" ideas), an original sculptural piece, a gazing ball, a traditional sun dial (in a bed of thyme of course!). You might select a topiary in an especially beautiful container: how about a venerable rosemary, a treasured bay tree or a well-tended rose or lantana standard ... all come to mind as possibilities. Just choose something you really like. It's YOUR garden and it should reflect YOUR personality!

Next, and trust me on this, you need a comfy place to sit. You might like a bench . Use a material, style and scale

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