6 Specialty Gardens for Delights Beyond the Visual

Imagine stocking cupboards with homegrown herbal blends, enjoying bouquets from your own cutting garden, or drawing an aromatic bath with fresh herbs. If you already grow vegetables, consider a garden that feeds you in a different way. From edible flowers to natural dyes, these six garden ideas offer harvests for the senses.

1. Cutting Garden

Flowers planted specifically for indoor bouquets. Doesn't need to be huge but should offer bounty throughout the season. Choose an out-of-the-way sunny spot—don't put it front and center, since you'll be snipping freely. Could even replace some lawn with a flower meadow.

What to plant: Fast growers like cosmos, black-eyed Susan, snapdragons for quick rewards. Also zinnias, mums, irises, sweet peas, roses, peonies—any flower you'd love in a vase.

2. Edible Flower Garden

Unlike a cutting garden, you need very little space—a pot or two on the patio or a few plants edging a bed. Perfect for sprinkling on salads, soups, or sugaring for cakes.

What to plant: Nasturtium, lavender, violets, pansies, Johnny-jump-ups. Rose petals (flavor varies). Squash blossoms from vegetable beds—stuffed, fried, or in quesadillas. Keep pesticides off edible plants.

3. Dye Garden

Create natural dyes for fabrics, eggs, and crafts from backyard harvests. Berries, petals, leaves, and roots boiled yield a range of colors.

What to plant: Blueberries, blackberries, goldenrod, marigold, hibiscus, indigo, red cabbage. Consult a how-to book for recipes and experiment—natural colors are less predictable than commercial dyes.

4. Tisane Garden

Grow your favorite herbs for herbal teas (tisanes), make custom blends, save money. Use fresh or dry them.

What to plant: Lemon balm, peppermint, lemon verbena, chamomile, bee balm, yerba buena.

5. Fragrant Garden

Plant along pathways where you'll brush against them, or in a backyard sitting area for delightful scent.

What to plant: Fragrant roses (smell before buying), lavender, lilacs, honeysuckle, jasmine, scented geranium, mint, rosemary, sage, oregano.

6. Bath Garden

Always have ingredients for a relaxing soak: tub teas, aromatherapy sachets, herbal massage oils, salves for dry skin.

What to plant: Lavender, calendula, chamomile, rosemary, mint.

Tell us: Which garden appeals most? Do you grow a garden with a specific purpose? Share photos in the comments!