What’s the point of gardening, other than having access to fresh herbs and vegetables? And if you happen to prefer your daily dose of greens in a glass, a garden can be a great playground. If you’re a cocktail lover, almost every building block of your favorite drink has a plant-based component: a flavored or infused liqueur, a fruit-based syrup, bitters, pureed fruit or vegetable, juice, and garnish. And you can get those ingredients right from your garden. Some of the most popular produce from my garden each year are the lavender syrup, pickled cherry tomatoes as a garnish, and the endless amounts of citrus juice I make. You can also plant a “cocktail garden.”

Herbs come in two flavors: perennials, like sage and rosemary, and tender seasonal herbs, like cilantro and basil. It’s helpful to sit down and think about which herbs you want to work with, and then divide that list into perennials and annuals. While herbs are great to spread out in your garden, especially since they can get big and bushy, you can also keep them together in one space, like an herb spiral. These arrangements create space for several herbs, and based on how they’re arranged in the spiral, they ensure that the hardier herbs protect the tender ones. Remember that while your hardy herbs like winter thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, and even parsley can be harvested in the winter, your annuals like basil, dill, cilantro, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and chives can only thrive in the summer. You’ll want to consider an indoor hydroponic garden to keep these herbs growing all winter long.

A note on mint: There are, you will find, endless varieties of mint, and it is important to be really picky about this herb. Find one that has the right amount of oomph for you. It is incredibly rare that anyone will advise you to plant mint in the ground because of its tendency to spread. Instead, plant it in a planter with very firm soil.

Lilac bushes, citrus trees, lavender or elderberry bushes, roses, and jasmine vines are the building blocks for heaven-smelling syrups. You can harvest the flowers and make syrups with them, or use them to make bitters from your own garden. Of course, these plants require more space and time, so you’ll need to give them more care in planning. Elderberries, for example, produce both elderflowers and elderberries, both of which can be incredibly useful in your garden. However, the plant itself can double in size in a year and is not self-pollinating, so it needs a partner. Lilacs and jasmine are spectacular when they bloom—you can smell them throughout the garden—but the blooming period is unfortunately short, especially for lilacs. In many cases, they offer a short window of only a week or two to successfully harvest the flowers, but fortunately, making a syrup is a simple ratio of sugar to water and requires little skill or practice.