A herbal snail will not only beautify your garden with its attractive look. It’s really handy because it gives you the opportunity to grow a wide variety of different herbs in a small space. In this article you will find a detailed guide and many practical tips on how to build a herbal snail. Let it inspire you!
Build herbal snail – instructions



The so-called “herbal snails” or “herbal spirals” have been popular and popular for years. As mentioned above, they not only create a nice ambience in the garden, but also allow you to plant a variety of herbs in a limited space, which also have different site requirements. All sorts of plants find their place in a herbal snail – from lavender, rosemary and other Mediterranean herbs that like nutrient-poor and dry soils to types such as peppermint, which need moist and nutritious soils to grow optimally. With our detailed instructions, you can build such an attractive herbal snail step by step. Just read on!
Choose the right place


Most herbs love the sunlight and heat, so it’s best to choose a sunny spot in the garden if you want to build a herbal snail. Your “herbal spiral” should not be too small, so that the plants can grow optimally – for about twelve herbs in a about 80 centimeters high herb snail, the minimum diameter must not be less than 3 meters, which actually corresponds to an area of about 7 square meters.
Draw outlines and create ballast foundation

The next step is to “draw” the outlines of the herb snail. Use pegs and a taut string – the spiral should be opened to the south. Then it is necessary to dig the earth with the spade – the depth should not be more than 40 centimeters. However, the stretched area should be stretched twice deeper because it is filled with a layer of gravel about 10 centimeters thick – this is the foundation for the wall and at the same time ensures that no waterlogging occurs later.
Build a stone wall

After you’ve laid the ballast foundation, there’s time to build the wall. Lay the first row of stones in the form of a spiral with two turns and gradually build a spiral-shaped protective wall. You can use for this purpose natural stones or clinker bricks, which are at least fist thick. The joints between the stones can be planted, for example, with thyme or Dost – this way, your protective wall would receive a beautiful, natural locomotive. And useful animals, such as lizards or snails, will find shelter in the wall columns.
Prepare earth mixes
Next, you should feel the rest of the area with gravel. The layer should be about 50 centimeters thick at the core, and this thickness should gradually decrease – to the end of the spiral. As a result, you get an attractive herbal snail whose inner point is said to have reached a height of about 80 centimeters. For filling the spiral, do not use normal garden soil – the different types of herbs like to have different types of soil, and you should create the conditions that meet the needs of each plant. That’s why the best solution is to use a special mixture of sand, compost and soil. For example, you can create four humidity zones. The top one should be suitable for the drought-loving plants – for this purpose half of the soil is added to the garden soil. Down the sand should steadily decrease – instead you give the soil more compost. And at the end of the spiral you should have a mixture that consists only of soil and compost.
Final fine work
If you want to build a herbal snail, it is a good idea to create a small, decorative pond at the end of the spiral. For this purpose, you can either use a prefabricated pond, which is placed in a correspondingly large hole, or rather lay pond liner. And after you have planted the herbs, your herb snail would look really gorgeous!