Designing the Timeless Herb Garden
A feature on Herb Garden Design by Faith H. Swanson & Virginia B. Rady—plus medieval blueprints you can use
If you love gardens that work as beautifully as they look, Swanson & Rady’s Herb Garden Design is one of those rare, durable guides that belongs on the workbench as much as the coffee table. First published by University Press of New England, it distills the fundamentals of designing with herbs and then brings them to life with dozens of clear plans—more than fifty layouts for courtyards, parterres, cloisters, kitchen plots, and theme gardens for cooks and apothecaries alike. ScribdAbeBooksGoodreads
Below is a practical tour through the book’s big ideas—paired with period-correct, public-domain medieval references (like the ninth-century Plan of St. Gall and images from the Tacuinum Sanitatis) you can cite or adapt freely in your own plans.
Quick rights note: Swanson & Rady’s drawings are copyrighted; we won’t reproduce them here. Instead, you’ll find historically faithful, public-domain diagrams and images that convey the same design DNA.
What the book gives you (in plain English)
1) Principles first, plans second. Swanson & Rady begin with site, soil, access and circulation, enclosure, and focal points—then evolve those into crisp geometric plans. Expect squares, rectangles, cruciform paths, roundels, and knot motifs, all scaled for real yards.
2) A pattern library of gardens. The book’s plan sets (50+) range from compact 12'×12' courts to broader parterres you can scale. Each plan ties plant purpose (culinary, physic, strewing, dye) to bed geometry and path width—so the layout explains the work of the garden.
3) Design that wears well. The authors lean formal, but always practical: low hedges (thyme, lavender, hyssop) to hold edges, gravel or brick for clean paths, and bed sizes that let you weed from the path without stepping into the soil. (Your back will thank you.)
The medieval roots behind the look
The St. Gall master plan (c. 820–830). The earliest surviving European garden plan includes a rectangular kitchen garden of 18 “potherb” beds and a square physic garden of 16 labeled herb beds, sited near the infirmary—an organizational logic Swanson & Rady echo throughout their book. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Physic, kitchen, and cloister. Medieval complexes kept medicina close to care, potherbs close to the kitchen, and the cloister garth as contemplative green—spatial roles you can still use: medicine near the door you actually exit when ill; salad beds near your everyday entry; ornamental/herber space where you sit with tea.
From physic beds to knot gardens. The tidy, compartmented beds of monastic plots evolve—by late medieval/early Tudor—into decorative “knots,” still often planted in herbs. If you want period style without fuss, a two-strand knot in hyssop or germander is a faithful, low-maintenance nod.
What medieval pictures teach. The Tacuinum Sanitatis scenes (c. 14th-15th c.) show trellises, wattle fences, clipped trees, and herb rows—visual proof that enclosure, order, and workmanlike scale are period-correct and practical today.
DIY…
Five layouts you can build this season
Dimensions below are suggestions—scale up or down. Keep paths 24–36″ so a wheelbarrow fits, 18″ minimum for foot traffic.
A) 4×4 Physic Garden (St. Gall–style)
20' × 20'. Four crossing gravel paths make a “+” with a small round or square center (sundial, urn, herb dryer rack). Sixteen 4'×4' beds around the cross:
Skin & wounds: yarrow, calendula, comfrey (contain comfrey).
Digestion: fennel, dill, mint (mint in sunken pots).
Respiratory: hyssop, thyme, sage.
Nerves & rest: lemon balm, chamomile, lavender.
Plant tall to the north, low edging (thymus, santolina) along paths. Inspired by St. Gall’s 16-bed physic plot. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
B) Cloister Court for Cooks
Approx. 24' square. A square lawn or tamped fines in the center with a simple wellhead or basin; a 5' walk encircles it beneath a pergola; four corner triangles hold basil, parsley, chives, and tarragon; sides get rosemary columns, sage mounds, and strawberries. Based on medieval cloister diagrams of Canterbury-era courts.
C) The Tudor Knot (Herb Parterre)
12' × 12'. A two-strand knot pattern (download any historic two-strand guide and trace it with a garden hose first). Plant the “cords” in low germander or hyssop, and fill the voids with variegated thyme and chamomile. Keep a neat gravel surround. Historic in spirit, work-light in practice.
D) The Potherb Stripe Garden
18 beds, 3' × 8' each in three ranks with 2' paths. One bed per staple: onions, leeks, parsley, savory, marjoram, sage, rosemary, dill, fennel, chervil, coriander, mint (contained), sorrel, lovage, celery leaf, oregano, borage, nasturtium. It riffs on St. Gall’s potherb kitchen geometry. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
E) The Vergier Border (Orchard + Herbs)
Under apples or pears, a 6' wide perimeter border mixes shade-tolerant herbs (sweet woodruff, violets, mint in pots, angelica) with bee plants (foxglove, comfrey for chop-and-drop). It channels the productive “viridarium/vergier” tradition.
Planting palette (starter sets)
Culinary core (sunny): rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, parsley, dill, fennel, oregano, savory, basil (summer annual), tarragon (French).
Physic & strewing: yarrow, hyssop, lavender, lemon balm, chamomile (Roman), costmary, rue (handle carefully), wormwood, southernwood. Charlemagne’s capitulary lists many of these as standards—evergreen inspiration for a medieval-flavored mix.
Materials & details that make it “read” medieval
Edges: living low hedges (germander, dwarf box where permitted, santolina), or wattle hurdles.
Paths: compacted gravel or brick on edge; keep joints tight so harvest baskets roll.
Enclosure: low fence, clipped hedge, or an “herber” arbour—privacy and wind-calm were prized.
Water: a central cistern or simple hand pump is spiritually true to cloister courts and practically useful for mixing tisanes. (The Eadwine Psalter’s waterworks sketch from Canterbury shows how intentional water routing was.)
How to adapt a Swanson & Rady plan to your yard (quick method)
Pick the pattern that matches your footprint (square for courts; rectangle for kitchen beds; “knot” for show).
Draw to scale (1 square = 1 foot). Mark 24–36″ paths first; let beds be what’s left.
Assign functions by quadrant (culinary near the door you use daily; physic nearest the house; dyes and strewing along the least-walked paths).
Edge and mulch before planting—geometry is half the effect.
Plant in tiers: edging herbs → mid mounds → a few trellised accents (rose, hops, espalier pear).
Add one focal (finial, sundial, bee skep) to anchor the axis.
Sidebars
Public-domain diagrams you can cite or trace
Plan of Saint Gall (ideal Benedictine complex with physic and kitchen gardens). Use it to lay out 16-bed squares or 18-bed rectangles.
Canterbury Cathedral plans (19th-century reconstructions and earlier engravings). Handy for cloister proportions and walk widths.
Tacuinum Sanitatis herb scenes (sage, fennel, dill, saffron). Mine details: trellis forms, wattle, bed edging, worker scale vs. plants.
A note on history sources (for further reading)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s overview concisely explains St. Gall’s 18 kitchen beds and 16-bed physic plot—great context for why the geometry works. Brooklyn Botanic Garden
University/rare-book references on the St. Gall manuscript give dimensions and placement logic you can adapt. XTF
Final word
Swanson & Rady’s book endures because it joins clarity (crisp plans you can build) with continuity (patterns proven for a thousand years). Match one of their layouts to a medieval-rooted reference, and you’ll get a garden that looks right, works hard, and stays easy to maintain.
Until next time…
I am…
Phil Wilson…
And, here’s to living an Herbal Lifestyle With You!
p.s. Next time, we will get you grounded on the potager!
Bibliographic note for your article footer
Swanson, Faith H., & Rady, Virginia B. Herb Garden Design. University Press of New England, 1984. (ISBN 0874512972).
The thought of designing a back-yard herb garden has taken hold in our "modern homestead". We have the space, the full sun and the sand for great drainage. We have our graph paper and can attest that after you plot good strong paths and water feature, fountain, etc. The square and rectangular herb beds are now coming to the fold (i.e. meaning to become visible) as the paths are nailed down.
Start with a long allee which runs from one path end-point to the other down the length of your finest open space / lawn.
You may want to have a folly... or other landscape feature, like a wooden bench, positioned at both ends for herb garden interest.
Next find the midpoint and try and create another axial perpendicular path left and right off of the long allee.
Hope this helps to motivate you!