A ninth century plan for a monastery garden describes a garden of medicinal herbs located outside an infirmary. The garden consists of sixteen beds, each containing a different herb to aviod mix-ups upon harvesting (Talbot, 1996). This garden referred to as herbularius contained medicinal plants such as sage, mint, lovage, and flag iris. Design 1 exemplifies this style of apothecary garden design.
Monestery gardens in the Middle Ages were very simple in design. These functional gardens consisted of several square or rectangular raised beds. The beds were small enough so that the middle could be reached without stepping on the soil, and the beds were seperated by walkways for easier access (James, 2001). A design of this type can be seen in sample Design 2.
Apothecary Gardens were more elaborate than the early monestery gardens. They were designed to be functional as well as decorative, and often contained a fountain or ornamental plants in pots. In keeping with the tradition from the monestery gardens, each species of herb was grown in a seperate bed to avoid potential mix-ups.
Early botaniccal gardens also features medicinal plants. The first botanical gardens founded as places of study were in Padua, Italy in 1545, and Oxford, England in 1621 (James, 2001). The designs used in these gardens were more elaborate than would be found in a typical apothecary garden. More attention waas given to aesthetics, and plant species were often combined in the same bed.