Herb gardening at present is not conducive to advancing to potions etc. Warding of raiders, or having to downgrade to get a few private herb beds is not at all enticing. Why can't we create something in our beakers that would allow us to convert a garden plot into a herb bed? It would be on a temporary basis, say for a given number of harvests, then back to the beaker to make more. This would solve the problems mentioned above.
Cheers
JJR