You said 'dream'. My dream herb garden would have different climates in different spots. I would be able to grow the lush parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, sage and bay I do here. Coriander and dill would suddenly be successful for me. And it would have a hot sunny patch where basil would thrive and a little tropical spot where I would have lemon grass and curry leaf. A magic tropical trellis would hold a vanilla orchid and a nutmeg tree would also be there along with a cinnamon bush.

No use to you, I'm afraid, but you invited dreams.

BTW Lemon Grass wouldn't be perennial in your region.

I love it!

And drat about lemongrass. I also have realized that rosemary probably isn't hardy, either. Sigh.

So, I definitely get your vision of a dream garden!

Pbl_ge, you'll probably want to see all the many herbs I've grown and talked about here. I live in Western NY State in technically zone 6, but often more like the zone 5 it used to be before being rezoned a number of years back.

Clay is actually a wonderful soil if you amend with organic matter like compost but take care with herbs like lavender, sage, and thyme that prefer well-draining soil. We all have places that do drain better than others. That is the place to plant those.

Of your list:
oregano - grows well. Can't kill it. Harvest all you want. It will make more.

thyme & sage - grows well but see above

lemongrass - nope. Too cold.

chives - lovely plants. Mine are blooming now.

parsley - grows well. Let it reseed if you want a continual patch of parsley.

cilantro - grows like a dream in our climate. People in the South have such a short season for this one and are jealous of our ability to grow this one. We can grow it all season long except for the hottest time of July and August. But if you want coriander seed, let some go to seed. Produces seed well.

Thai or Italian basil - grows very well. Holy basil too. I direct sow these after the last frost date, roughly Memorial Day.

FataMorgana

Thanks, Fata! These tips are great, especially because you and I are neighbors. We're likely building the herb bed soon, so I'll be looking for ideas for fill.

We've determined that it will be different compartments in raised beds on a slope. Hoping to figure out something to make it a bit more exciting.

Thanks!

I'm in a very different climate than you are (PNW), but here goes:

I have a perennial herb garden for culinary herbs that takes up about 6' x 4' - hard to say, because it's an irregular shape. The annual herbs are in the veg garden, and other herbs are scattered around in pots and in other beds. There are non-culinary herbs here and there as well.

My "dream" herb garden would include the sort of things I have now, but a little more artfully arranged, and maybe with more of some things - I love basil, and so, this year, I've started it from seed instead of going for a half-dozen nursery plants. I should have a basil-o-rama.

In the perennial garden, I have tons of thyme, sage, rosemary, fennel, lovage, chives, oregano, marjoram, and tarragon. (There's comfrey too, because that sucker just wants to be there.) Most of these are there through the entire year; the tarragon does die back.

In the veg garden, there's chervil, parsley (could have been in the perennial garden, since it sticks around, but it likes where it lives so I've left it there thus far), cilantro, dill, chervil.

Mint is in a pot to keep it contained. Someone once planted lemon balm on this property, and it grows everywhere - it's become a bit of a weed. (A nice-smelling weed that you can use for tea or in salads). The bay is also in a pot, as is the kaffir lime. So is the cardamom, which is really just there for fun, since I doubt I'll be getting pods from the thing. The leaves smell nice :-) More rosemary and more thyme grow in other pots.

In other beds - lavender, chamomile.

As far as your question re bed design, I'm a fan of raised beds, so that's what I'd choose. My current perennial herb garden is stone, which is pretty, and allows for a non-geometric shape. I like everything to be easily accessible for plucking things to bring in to the kitchen, so I'd choose narrow/small beds. I like things to be aesthetically pleasing, so I'd keep that in mind as I laid out my plants.

Have fun!

Hmmm...I have part of my 'dream' herb garden right now, since I manage the herb garden at the community garden where I have my veggie plot, and it's large--about 20x30'. I also get to volunteer and help with the herb gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens, so I have lots to play with. But...

The community herb garden has a large spiral planter built out of bricks that I'm very happy with how it works, looks, and is relatively easy to care for (I just posted a pic on a thread about elevation gardens, so I won't double up here). It was also nice over the winter, since I just built the bricks up a bit more and mulched heavily with straw. I've been dreaming of building my own spiral planter out of some sort of stone, incorporating a water feature into it, with a little bit of cascading around the edge of the top spiral, then having a waterfall down the side, into a small pool at the bottom.

The spiral would hold more of the arid type herbs--so would have a more sandy soil mix in it. Down around the pool, I could grow cress and maybe some water lovers. The path around my spiral would have stone pavers, with ornamental thymes growing between to smell good every time I stepped on them. Surrounding the spiral (which would be the centerpiece) I could have a mix of beds for things such as basils and cilantro/parsley and barrel or other containers for those such as mint that need containment. My dream would also have a greenhouse on one side, so that I could try some more tropical types that I haven't played with yet, and save some of the tender perennials such as rosemary, marjoram, lemon verbena, and scented geraniums that I currently can't overwinter unless I bring them inside where my toddlers can get to them. There would also have to be some sort of swing in the shade on the edge, where I could sit and enjoy the water cascades.

Now we're talking, balloon--that sounds amazing! I'll have to go hunt that thread down.

Surf, thanks for the tips! And I agree with you about basil--it's impossible to have too much.