I think the rose in the middle sounds really pretty. I have all of my herbs along the brick path across from my blackberry vines, and that makes it easy to harvest them, but I also interplant things like basil and parsley among my tomatoes and peppers.

My herbs are in the trianglular center of my garden, where there is a path down the center and on 2 edges. I have 4 raised beds 4' x 12' and plant herbs along the 4' ends, but on the ground, not up in the raised beds. Works great.
Easy to get to and they don't get over-run or over-run anything else.

I just took some pics this morning. Here's a new side bed that separates the hops. It's really filled in and is a bit of a riot right now with a morning glory twining around in there. Plus, my italian ice tomato refuses to stay tied to the trellis so it's sprawling.

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And, here is my center circle that I planted at the beginning of the season. The mini-roses have been very happy. There's green and purple basil all around. I put a knock-out rose in the very center but the basil is covering it. I also threw in two amaranth and a sunflower. The ones on the opposite side didn't grow so its a bit lopsided.

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