Grow-your-pharmacy bed

The parent page gives the list. This is what happens when you actually plant it, which for three of those entries is more than you bargained for.

Three that will take the bed over

The parent page notes mint needs containing. It is not the only one.

Comfrey is the one to think hardest about. It is genuinely useful, it makes excellent liquid plant feed, and it is close to permanent. Choose the spot as though you are planting a small tree, because in terms of reversibility you are.

One not to plant near the house

The parent page suggests willow at the boundary, and that needs a caveat.

Willow roots are vigorous and actively seek moisture, which means drains. They are a recognised cause of damage to drainage runs, and on shrinkable clay soils they are among the species associated with subsidence risk near buildings.

So: willow only if you have real distance from the house, from any drain run and from a neighbour's foundations. On a typical British plot the honest answer is that there is nowhere to put it. A pot will not do, because a container willow will not give you usable bark.

The same caution applies to elder in a small garden, though for a milder reason: it self-seeds freely, birds distribute it, and it will keep appearing in hedges and borders for years. That is fine if you want elder and tedious if you did not.

What survives a British winter

The parent page describes everything as hardy. Most of it is. Two are not.

• Aloe vera is not frost hardy. It is a windowsill plant here, and it will die outdoors in the first hard frost. Keep it indoors permanently, in a bright spot, and water it far less than feels right.
• Basil, if you add it, is an annual and a tender one. Indoors or under cover.
• Calendula is an annual but self-seeds so reliably that it behaves like a perennial. Let some go to seed and it returns.
• Chamomile: check which one you have. German chamomile is an annual that self-seeds; Roman chamomile is a low perennial. Both are usable and they behave completely differently in a bed.
• Thyme, sage, yarrow, lemon balm, mint and comfrey are all genuinely hardy and will come back for years.

Plantain will arrive on its own, as the parent page says, and it is worth pointing out to children as the one they can learn first, since nothing toxic resembles it.

Planting it in the right order

A herb bed does not pay off in year one. Plan it as a three-year thing and start with what earns fastest.

1. Year one, buy plants rather than seed for the perennials: thyme, sage, mint in its pot, lemon balm. A small plant in April is a usable plant by July; from seed it is next year.
2. Sow calendula and chamomile direct, because they are easy from seed, they flower the same year, and they self-seed afterwards.
3. Get garlic in the ground in autumn. It is the highest-value thing on the whole list, it takes almost no space, and it is food as well.
4. Site comfrey once, and site it where the liquid feed bucket can live next to it.
5. Add yarrow and elder in year two, once you know where the light and the wet spots actually are.
6. Keep aloe on the kitchen windowsill where somebody will remember it exists, which is the whole reason it is useful for burns.

Then dry and store some every year, per drying and storing, because a fresh herb bed in July is not a remedy cupboard in February.

The most medicinal plants in the garden are food

The honest observation to end on, and it is not a criticism of the parent page.

A herb bed is a genuine asset, a pleasure to grow, and it will never contribute to a household's health as much as the vegetable patch does. Nothing on the medicinal list prevents illness the way adequate calories, fresh green leaves and vitamin C do.

The garden's real medical contribution, ranked:

1. Anything green and leafy, for vitamins in winter. Kale, chard, and the cut-and-come-again salads.
2. Sprouts on the windowsill, which need no garden at all and produce vitamin C in days.
3. Potatoes and squash, for calories, which is what keeps people warm and working.
4. Garlic and onions, which are food, flavour and the parent page's own antimicrobial entry at once.
5. Then the herb bed, for comfort, sleep, digestion and minor wounds, which are real needs and are not the same order of need.

So put the herbs in the border and the calories in the beds. The parent page's own food chapter is the one doing the heavy lifting, and the pharmacy bed is the pleasant, useful thing you grow alongside it. See calories, not salad.