Low-Growing Herbs for Containers, Pathways, and Ground Cover

Herbs flavor food, fragrance products, and supply medicinal ingredients. Even without a vegetable garden, you can grow herbs indoors, on patios, or in yards. Low-growing varieties excel in containers and along pathways.

Oregano (Marjoram)

Mint family member essential to Italian cooking. Sharp, distinctive flavor seasons stews, dressings, soups; oils used in soap-making. Common oregano stays low; Greek oregano grows upright to 2 feet.

Thyme

Flavors stews, soups, and bouquet garni. Source of thymol (medicinal). 300+ species exist; low-growing types include woolly thyme, miniature thyme, mother of thyme, and caraway thyme.

Mint

Excellent ground cover—easy, fast-spreading. Invasive; container gardening contains it. Garnish drinks and desserts. Varieties: peppermint, spearmint, pennyroyal (insect repellent, not for ingestion), corsican mint.

Ajuga

Low-growing ground cover that suppresses weeds. Roots yield black dye for wool. Blue-violet spring flowers attract bees.

Anthemis

Used as lawn substitute in Europe. Aromatic, mowable, drought-resistant. Seasons sherry; softens hair in products. Low-growing but flower stems spike to ~1 foot.