Ornamental herbs
You may also desire to grow herbs just to make a bright environment for visual esthetics. Without a doubt, you've seen the brightly colored flowers and foliage of many of these gorgeous plants. Many have less color and more restrained pastel or even whitish looking flowers.
These are classified as ornamental herbs, whose sole purpose is to be decorative. Of course they may be some overlapping. Some culinary herbs are very beautiful as they grow. Many medicinal herbs, such as Echinacea or the purple coneflower are stunning to behold.
Ornamental herbs can also be beautiful because of the texture of their leaves in addition to their colors. These plants make perfect accents for a balcony or to line your flower bed.
And if your main purpose is for ornamental or decorative reasons, you may never harvest these plants.
If you're considering adding herbs to your world for this reason, valerian -- also a very valuable medicinal herb -- is a perfect choice. It produces crimson blossoms. Borage and chicory are also good choices here, with their blue flowers. But don't overlook other herbs that could add delightful color including variegated thyme, mint lavender and even chives.
Another perfect example of an ornamental herb is one called the Dittany of Crete. It's a type of oregano. Forming a low mound and producing leaves with fine silvery hairs, this plant wasn't made to add flavor to any meal -- it was created to be admired!