A rock garden is not just for the eyes, because you can grow tasty and healthy herbs for the kitchen here. Blooming lavender, fragrant thyme… herbs of Mediterranean origin in particular find ideal site conditions in a sunny rock garden.
Herbs and stones not only go well together visually
Which herbs are suitable for the rock garden?
Many of the Mediterranean herbs, such as some types of thyme or common lavender, form large carpets over time, which are particularly attractive when they are in bloom. Alternatively, the herbs can also be cultivated in a specially built herb spiral.
Common lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
This most hardy of all lavender species is a popular and widely used scent and aroma plant. It can be combined in many different ways and is well suited as a small hedge or edging. Usually lavender flowers purple, but there are also pink and white flowering varieties. 'Munstead' grows compactly and flowers a little lighter. 'Hidcote Blue' is a slow grower and has an attractive deep blue-purple bloom. 'Dwarf Blue' stays smaller. 'Lumières des Alpes' has purple labial flowers and dark blue calyxes. 'Miss Katherine' has pink flowers and grows to about 60 centimeters high. Provence lavender (Lavandula x intermedia) is also very pretty in the rock garden, but is less frost hardy. Both types of lavender can be combined very well with holy flowers, palm lilies, spurflowers and pearl grass.
thyme (thymus)
Many thyme species and cultivars form large, ground-covering carpets. However, the common thyme only survives safely outdoors in warmer regions. For example, the following are particularly suitable for the rock garden:
- Thymus x citriodorus (lemon thyme): 'Aureus', 'Golden Dwarf', 'Silver King' (white-edged leaves), 'Doone Valley' (yellow variegated leaves)
- Thymus serpyllum: 'Album' (white-flowered, mat-forming), 'Coccineus' (scarlet-red flower)
- Thymus 'Scented Pillow' (frost hardy)
Thyme works well alongside blue fescue, woolly squist, and lower catnip.
Spice Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Sage is not only a versatile spice and medicinal plant, but also has a high decorative value. Since over-aged specimens are not hardy, you should cut them regularly. There are many different varieties here too. 'Berggarten' has strikingly broad leaves, but hardly ever blooms and is very hardy. 'Purpurascens' shows purple-tinged foliage, 'Ictarine' has yellow-edged foliage. Both varieties need light winter protection in harsh locations. 'Rosea' has pink flowers. The lavender-leaved sage (Salvia lavandulifolia) has narrower leaves and is very hardy. Suitable planting partners for all varieties are lavender, thyme, mugwort, sedum and grasses such as Atlas fescue or blue oat.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Rosemary is just as valuable a kitchen spice as it is a decorative evergreen leaf and flower ornamental plant. However, even in mild areas, only a few cultivars can be grown outdoors without shelter - rosemary is not hardy. 'Arp' and 'Weihenstephan' are more frost hardy than other forms. Both bloom light blue.
Winter savory (Satureja montana)
Depending on the variety, this frost-hardy, evergreen subshrub blooms very pretty in late summer, ranging from white to pale lilac. In the garden, the plant looks beautiful next to woolly ziest, blue fescue and stonecrop. The subspecies 'Satureja montana subsp. illyrica' is only about 15 centimeters high and presents brightly colored, purplish-violet inflorescences.
tips
Herbs should always be cut back towards the end of winter.