Surely you have already brought some crops from your herb bed this year and enjoyed the first chives, marjoram or dill. Nevertheless, June is an ideal month to quickly create a new herb bed. For example, culinary herbs such as savory, basil, marjoram and parsley can still be sown. If you want to go faster, you can find other varieties such as rosemary, sage or thyme in specialist shops as container plants. Discount products should generally be avoided in favor of high quality, as the plants are usually artificially bred and will therefore only please you for a short time.
Which herbs can you plant for the herb bed in June?
In June you can plant lovage, St. John's wort, lavender, lady's mantle, Korean mint, garlic, cut celery, wild celery and barberry cress for your herb bed in order to achieve good yields until September.
To each (herb) his own
Anyone who has been growing plants for some time knows that a distinction is made between different areas of life within the garden. It is the same with herb cultivation, which can be territorially divided into the following locations:
- Vegetable patch
- Herb bed (open space)
- Mediterranean herb bed
- wooded edge
- Water's Edge
- Bucket
It is certainly interesting to know which herbs thrive best in which of the six areas of life and get along best with each other. The following overview is based on decades of experience and was taken from the book “Growing herbs correctly” (€29.00 on Amazon) by Andrea Heistinger.
| Type of herbs | Vegetable patch | Herb bed | Mediterranean herb bed | wooded edge | Water's Edge | Bucket |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agastache | x | x | x | |||
| Oyster plant | x | |||||
| Wild garlic | x | |||||
| Basil | x | x | ||||
| leaf parsley | x | |||||
| Savory annual | x | |||||
| Savory perennial | x | x | ||||
| Borage | x | x | ||||
| Stinging Nettle | x | x | ||||
| Barbara Cress | x | x | ||||
| Bread Clover | x | |||||
| Watercress | x | x | x | |||
| Curry herb | x | x | ||||
| Dill | x | x | ||||
| Eberraute | x | x | ||||
| Tarragon | x | |||||
| Galangal | x | |||||
| Garden cress | x | |||||
| Vegetable Purslane | x | |||||
| spiced fennel | x | x | ||||
| Greek mountain tea | x | |||||
| Indian nettle | x | x | ||||
| Ginger | x | |||||
| Japanese parsley | x | x | ||||
| Jiaogulan | x | x | ||||
| Calmus | x | |||||
| Chamomile | x | |||||
| cardamom | x | |||||
| Chervil | x | x | x | |||
| Knotted Celery | x | |||||
| Garlic mustard | x | x | ||||
| Coriander | x | x | ||||
| Caraway | x | x | ||||
| Lavender | x | x | ||||
| lovage | x | x | ||||
| Spoonwort | x | x | ||||
| Laurel | x | x | ||||
| Marjoram annual | x | |||||
| Marjoram perennial | x | x | ||||
| Samphire | x | |||||
| Mint | x | x | x | |||
| Monk's Beard | x | x | ||||
| Oregano | x | x | ||||
| Perilla | x | x | ||||
| Peruvian Pepper Tree | x | |||||
| Mushroom herb | x | |||||
| Marigold | x | |||||
| Rose Geranium | x | |||||
| Rosemary | x | x | ||||
| Rukola | x | |||||
| Sage, local | x | x | ||||
| Sage, tropical | x | x | ||||
| Cut garlic | x | x | ||||
| Chives | x | x | ||||
| Cut celery | x | x | x | |||
| Stevia | x | |||||
| Hollyhock | x | x | ||||
| Thyme | x | x | ||||
| Woodruff | x | |||||
| Frankincense plant | x | |||||
| Wormwood | x | x | ||||
| Hyssop | x | x | ||||
| Rockrose | x | x | ||||
| Lemongrass | x | |||||
| Lemon balm | x | x | x | |||
| Lemon Verbena | x | x |
Even if we are talking about a herb bed, annual or perennial flowers, grasses or perennials can also be grown here. However, an important prerequisite for the success and the highest possible yields of your herbalist is a completely tree-free area that can be exposed to direct sunlight.
Carefully plan the design of herb beds
It is particularly important for consistently strong herbs over many years that you have as precise an idea as possible about where the plants should find their new home. If the distances and the “sociability” of the different species are correct, you will soon notice that very impressive and productive herb beds develop over several growing seasons.
Essential herbs for different soils
Even if you don't plant the types of herbs listed below until June, the chances of a bountiful harvest well into September are still excellent.
Examples of promising plantings for your herb bed in June
| Floor | Herbs |
|---|---|
| Dry ground | lovage, St. John's wort, lavender, rue, white balm, mallow, wormwood, hyssop |
| Fresh soil | Ladies mantle, Korean mint, garlic, marshmallow, licorice, lemon balm, horseradish, borage |
| Wet ground | Cut celery, wild celery, barberry cress, watercress, spoonwort, valerian, Japanese parsley |
Attractive herb beds are easy to build yourself
The two roundels shown in the photos were not built in one day, but they were very inexpensive. For the two rings we needed:
- approx. 60 kg cement
- one m3 gravel
- Gravel stones (waste from a renovation project by Deutsche Bahn)
The ground was first dug a good 15 cm deep and then an eight cm thick foundation was poured. The first layer of stone was placed in the not yet hardened concrete mixture just below the edge of the floor. After drying, cement again, the second layer of gravel, etc. etc. A mixture of home-made compost soil, mulched grass clippings and a thin layer of rock was used as the filling for the roundel. The nutrients were added twice a year in small quantities using organic fertilizer mixed with emaciated topsoil.
Tip
Each autumn, simply dig up the perennial plants, depending on their development, and divide them before replanting them. The soil does NOT need to be loosened every few weeks and you can even leave larger stones in the ground as they have a heat storage function and also look very decorative.
