Herb garden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Celtic folk band of the same name, see Herb_Garden.

Borage is commonly grown in herb gardens; its attractive flowers can be used as a garnish.

A herb garden is a garden specifically designed and used for the cultivation of cooking and/or medicinal herbs.

Herb gardens developed from the general gardens of the ancient classical worlds, used for growing vegetables, flowers, fruits and medicines. During the medieval period, monks and nuns acquired specialist medical knowledge and grew the necessary herbs in specialist gardens. Typical plants were rosemary, parsley, sage, marjoram, thyme, mint, rue, angelica, bay and basil. With the advance of medical and botanical sciences in Renaissance Europe, monastic herb gardens developed into botanical gardens. The section in which herbs was grown became known as a Garden of Simples.

Herb gardens experienced a revival with the work of the British garden historian and horticultural, writer Eleanour Sinclair Rohde (1882–1950). Modern herb gardens may be purely functional or may be ornamental, sometimes as part of a design and containing boxes and raised beds. The development of alternative medicine is also encouraging people to grow and use fresh herbs (e.g., for the treatment of acne).