Edible plants for sensory gardens: fig with herbs

This low-input border design will help you to choose plants that thrive together to not only produce great-tasting fruits and herbs, but also provide year-round interest and attract pollinators and wildlife

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Don’t forget the sense of taste when designing your sensory garden
Don’t forget the sense of taste when designing your sensory garden

Quick facts

  • Sensory plants can help to bring back memories and help lift your mood
  • Having sensory plants that have been prominent in your life can spark conversations
  • Some scented plants can have calming effects

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The planting plan

James Lawrence, RHS Principal Horticultural Advisor, has designed this simple, attractive and, most importantly, sustainable border design for you to try at home, with plants that are easy to grow, widely available and look good together. 

Edible plants for sensory gardens: fig with herbs

© James Lawrence

Choosing edible plants for sensory gardens

The main function here is to provide plants that are tasty and aromatic but also look good and provide interest throughout the year.

The fig will create a focal point for the scheme and provide fruit for birds and wildlife, as well as yourself. The tall fennel will give the scheme an airy, see-through feel, but also produce edible seeds, roots and leaves. The groundcover of herbs will give off an aromatic scent if brushed against, as well as helping to reduce moisture evaporation from the soil surface and suppress weed growth.
 
Consider mulching the bare soil with an organic mulch to help this further while waiting for plants to spread, preferably using homemade compost. Avoid spreading bagged potting compost on beds and borders. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.

1 - Foeniculum vulgare ‘Giant Bronze’
2 - Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’
3 - Salvia rosmarinus ‘Severn Sea’
4 - Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurescens’
5 - Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’
6 - Salvia officinalis ‘Icterina’
7 - Thymus Coccineus Group  
1 - Foeniculum vulgare ‘Giant Bronze’ is a robust, aromatic short-lived perennial with pinnate copper-bronze leaves bearing flat umbels of small yellow flowers in the summer. 

2 - Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’ is a large deciduous shrub with bold, deeply lobed leaves and insignificant flowers followed by edible fruit which start green and ripen to purple. 

3 - Salvia rosmarinus ‘Severn Sea’ is an evergreen shrub bearing aromatic, linear, dark green leaves, and bright blue, two-lipped flowers in clusters in spring and summer. 

4 - Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’ is an aromatic, semi-evergreen dwarf shrub with purple young foliage and stems, becoming grey-green with maturity. It bears heads of purple-blue flowers in the summer. 

5 - Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’ is a semi-evergreen sub-shrub forming a spreading clump of wiry stems bearing golden-green leaves and clusters of light pink tubular flowers from summer into the autumn. 

6 - Salvia officinalis ‘Icterina’ is an evergreen dwarf sub-shrub with aromatic, grey-yellow variegated leaves with heads of pale purple-blue flowers in the summer. 

7 - Thymus Coccineus Group is a low-growing, evergreen sub-shrub forming a carpet of very small, dark green, aromatic foliage with clusters of deep red flowers in summer 

Growing edible plants

Growing your own fruit and herbs is a great way to eat more healthily, and gives you total control over what goes into your produce, from the soil it grows in and water it receives to ensuring that it is organic and pesticide-free. Planting schemes containing edible crops help to reinforce that growing your own food can improve health and overall well-being. This simple planting plan helps create depth, interest and good coverage in the border. 
 

Why choose a sustainable planting combination?

Using the ethos of ‘right plant, right place’ to create a sustainable planting combination is great for the environment. It helps to avoid waste and the use of products and practices needed to try and help ailing plants, such as applying fertiliser. It also creates robust, long-lived planting that benefits soil health and garden biodiversity.

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Advice from the RHS

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.