5 Most Attractive Herb Plants for Your Landscape

Posted November 3, 2014

There are a lot of factors that go into creating an amazing new landscape design. You need to consider the type of home, the space, the budget, the uses, and much more. But all of the factors can be summarized into two separate groups:

Landscape designs that make your landscape more attractive.
Landscape designs that make your landscape more functional.

Those are the ultimate goals of any Sacramento/Folsom landscaper, and the hopes of every homeowner. You want a landscape that is visually appealing, while also as functional as possible.

Adding Herbs to Your Landscape Design

There are a lot of landscape ideas that intersect both those goals. For example, a fish pond can be a great visual tool, and may also be used to eat mosquitos. A putting green is functional, and when well-designed it can be attractive as well.

But other additions to your landscape are not quite as easy. An example of this is herbs. Many people want to add herbs to their gardens or landscape designs, but herbs are generally visually unimpressive plants, and when your goal is to create a beautiful landscape design, adding herbs isn’t necessarily going to be as attractive as, say, adding orchids.

Still, there are some herbs that are just as beautiful as they are functional. For those that want to intersect the two while still adding herbs to your landscape design, consider the following 5 Most Attractive Herb Plants for Your Landscape:

Fennel Plant – Many people buy fennel at the grocery store, and it’s well known for its strong licorice taste. Fennel is also a very interesting flowering plant. The leaves are very thin and compact, and when they flower they create thousands of tiny, yellow flowers that can make for a very appealing landscape.
Sage Plant – Sage is also a popular herb, and it can make for a very attractive plant. The flowers of the sage are a deep purple, and often shoot up into the air. The leaves of the sage plant are also slightly fuzzy in appearance which helps them stand out against the turf.
Dill Plant – Not a big fan of fennel? You can replace it with dill and barely notice a difference. Like fennel, dill has very thin leaves and creates very small yellow flowers, but of course dill has a very different, very distinct taste that is great for pickling.
Bee Balm/Monarda – If you’re looking for a plant that flowers like… well… flowers, then you’re looking for bee balm. With a mint like taste, bee balm is already a popular herb for those that know how to work with its flavor, and unlike other herbs it can create bright purple or red flowers that add some serious visual appeal to every garden.
Catmint – Catmint may not be an herb for your dinner plate, but if you have cats, it’s a great herb for your cat’s health and happiness. Related to catnip, catmint is a pretty purple flower that goes great in a lot of gardens.

There are ways to make almost every single herb attractive in some way, provided you know where to place it and how to complement it. So if you’re looking for basil, parsley, mind, or some of the other herbs that tend not to look as visually attractive, there are still ways to add it to your garden and still make your landscape beautiful.

But if you want to focus solely on attractive plants that also can be used in cuisines, the above list is are some of the best options. These are visually appealing herbs that can complement any landscape, while providing extra functionality to your landscape design.