Millions of households across the United States grow herbs, whether in vegetable and perennial gardens, in containers, or on windowsills. And with good reason! Beyond their obvious role in cooking, herbs are attractive, durable plants that add color, interesting textures and forms, and rich or subtle fragrances to the home and garden. Most are remarkably easy to grow, and a small, well-planned bed can supply your kitchen from spring through frost.

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Why Grow Herbs?

The most popular use for herbs is in cooking, and nearly every recipe can be enhanced with the right ones. Can you imagine tomato sauce without oregano? Thanksgiving stuffing without sage? Some dishes are defined by their herbs; pesto without basil just isn't pesto.

Herbs have many other uses as well. Many types make wonderful teas, individually or in blends: chamomile makes a soothing cup for unwinding after a hard day, and bee balm (Monarda) brews a tangy tea with citrus overtones. Others have a long history of medicinal use. The echinacea popular as a cold remedy comes from the purple coneflower, a common garden perennial.

There's a health case for fresh herbs, too. Research measuring antioxidant activity in dozens of culinary and medicinal herbs found that many fresh culinary herbs are even higher in disease-fighting antioxidants than powerhouse foods like blueberries. Oregano led the pack, with dill, thyme, rosemary, and peppermint close behind. Fresh herbs beat dried, as well. Letting freshly harvested herbs take the place of artificial flavors and excess salt is one of the easiest upgrades a cook can make.

And of course, many gardeners grow herbs simply because they're beautiful. Combine purple sage with orange cosmos, use low-growing thyme as a ground cover between perennials, or let curly parsley play garnish to the whole border.

Herb or Spice?

The two terms get tangled, but the distinction is simple: herbs are generally plants of temperate climates whose leaves are harvested for use, like basil, thyme, sage, and mint. Spices are mainly tropical plants from which we use the roots (ginger), fruits (vanilla), flowers (cloves), seeds (pepper), or bark (cinnamon). It can get confusing at the edges. Rosemary is woody, for example, but since we use its leaves, it's an herb in the culinary sense. And one popular seasoning is neither: salt is a mineral, not a plant.

Types of Herbs

Like all garden plants, herbs can be categorized as annual, perennial, or biennial. Annuals grow for only one season and must be replanted each spring. Perennials live for years; their foliage may die back in fall, but the roots overwinter and resume growth the following spring. Biennials grow foliage the first season, then flower, set seed, and die in the second.

Annual herbs

Perennial herbs*

*Not all are hardy in all regions. Check zone ratings.

Parsley is one of the few common herbs that is a biennial. Unless you want to harvest the seed, treat it like an annual and set out new plants each season.

Cooks also find it useful to think in three practical groups: herbaceous perennials such as oregano, chives, tarragon, and mint, which die to the ground each year and return in spring; evergreen herbs such as rosemary and sage, which stay green through winter where hardy (prune them in spring so they don't become too woody to produce tender leaves); and annuals such as basil, cilantro, and dill, which die with frost and must be replanted.

Choosing a Site

Plant herbs where you can get to them easily for frequent harvesting, ideally close to the kitchen, so you can scurry out and snip ingredients for a dish already on the stove. A dedicated kitchen garden near the house is ideal, but herbs also thrive tucked into vegetable beds, flower borders, containers, and window boxes.

Most herbs prefer full sun, at least 6 hours per day. Herbs that tolerate some light shade include chives, cilantro, dill, mint, and parsley. In hot-summer areas, a spot with morning sun and relief from scorching afternoons is often best.

Two practical placement notes: if you plant perennial herbs in the vegetable garden, keep them in their own section so you avoid them during spring and fall tilling. And remember that a working herb garden is utilitarian. A heavily harvested basil or a chopped-down dill patch isn't pretty while it recovers, so place the garden where that's acceptable (or interplant with annual flowers to camouflage trimmed plants).

Soil

In general, herbs prefer a moderately rich soil, and excellent drainage is non-negotiable. Many culinary herbs, including thyme, oregano, rosemary, and lavender, hail from the Mediterranean and are accustomed to lean, gravelly ground. If your soil doesn't drain well, grow herbs in raised beds or containers.

Amend beds with compost before planting, then mulch with an organic material such as shredded bark; the compost provides air spaces for tender roots and slow nutrition, and the mulch breaks down into more organic matter over time.

Go easy on fertility. An overly rich soil (or excessive fertilizing) produces lush growth, but many people find the flavor of overfertilized herbs bland, likely due to reduced essential-oil content. During soil preparation, 1½ to 2 pounds of 5-10-10 (or its organic equivalent) per 100 square feet is plenty.

Designing Your Herb Garden

Herbs can be mixed into other plantings or given a garden of their own. Either way, the design can be formal or relaxed.

A traditional formal herb garden uses two intersecting paths to create four symmetrical beds, each grouped by theme (culinary herbs, medicinal herbs, aromatic herbs) or by cuisine, such as an Italian bed with basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, and rosemary, or an Asian bed with Thai basil, lemongrass, and hot peppers. Edge the paths with brick, stone, or well-trimmed woody herbs such as lavender, and mark the center with an urn, birdbath, or bench as a focal point.

Informal herb gardens are designed more like a cottage garden, with plants spilling into one another: less about looks, more about production. However you design it, make sure every bed can be reached with paths or stepping stones, and group herbs with similar growing requirements together for easier care.

A few design pointers:

  • Position tall herbs at the center or north side of the bed, short and creeping herbs at the front or south side, so nothing gets shaded out.
  • Put the herbs you'll harvest daily closest to the path.
  • Herbs grown for seed (like dill and coriander) look tired by harvest time; give them a less prominent spot.
  • Don't forget color: edible flowers such as pansies, violas, calendula, and marigolds complement herb foliage in the garden and on the plate.
  • Grow what you actually cook with. A garden full of herbs you love to use will be harvested often, and harvesting is what keeps herbs productive.

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Planting and Propagation

Herbs can be started from seed, from cuttings, or from purchased plants.

From seed: Most herb seeds are small; plant them no more than ¼ inch deep in moist seed-starting mix, or sprinkle them on the surface and cover lightly. Keep the soil evenly moist until germination. Basil, cilantro, and dill are among the easiest from seed, and quick-maturing annuals can be succession-sown for a steady supply.

From cuttings: Some herbs, such as rosemary, sage, mint, and lemon verbena, are quicker from cuttings than seed. Snip a healthy 3- to 4-inch stem tip, strip the leaves from the lower half, and stick it in a soilless mix. Water gently and cover with a plastic bag until new top growth appears.

From plants: Nurseries offer most common herbs as young plants, and spring divisions from a friend's established clumps of chives, oregano, or mint get a garden off to a fast start.

Growing herbs, like cooking with them, is a process of trial and error. If a plant sulks in one location, dig it up and try it somewhere else. Early spring, just as new growth begins, is a good time to move most perennial herbs.

Caring for Herb Plants

Most herbs thrive with about 1 inch of water a week, similar to other vegetable-garden plants. Herbs in raised beds and containers dry out faster and may need more frequent watering. Keep beds weeded, especially early in the season while plants are getting established.

In fertile garden soil, established herbs need little or no additional fertilizer. Container herbs are the exception: regular watering leaches nutrients, so feed them with a dilute complete fertilizer to keep leaves green and growth steady. A heavily harvested plant, like a basil you're cutting hard every week, also appreciates a light feeding every couple of weeks.

Once established, most herbs are remarkably resistant to insects and disease. The same essential oils that give them aroma and flavor likely evolved to repel pests. Still, keep an eye out for aphids and for diseases such as powdery mildew, and give plants good spacing and air circulation.

Herbs for Hot, Humid Climates

Most herb-growing advice assumes a dry Mediterranean disposition, which sends herbs in the Deep South into culture shock. But even in a climate with 60 inches of rain a year and months of 90-percent humidity, herbs can thrive. The trick, as one Louisiana grower put it: "You can water, but you can't unwater."

  • Raise the beds. Nine-inch-high raised beds filled with a fast-draining mix (about three parts coarse builder's sand to one part peat or compost) keep roots out of saturated ground. Fussy, drainage-sensitive herbs like rosemary do best mounded up even higher, which also improves air circulation.
  • Mulch light. Use a lightweight mulch that won't sink into sandy soil, such as shredded pine, cypress bark, or pecan shells, to keep reflected summer heat from burning stems.
  • Flip the calendar. In the Gulf South, cool-season annuals like cilantro, dill, and parsley are sown in fall and grown through the mild winter, then harvested until spring heat arrives. Basil takes the summer shift.
  • Trial ruthlessly. Try new herbs in several microclimates at once (a pot under the eaves, full sun, part shade) and keep whichever placement thrives. Small moves often make the difference between success and failure.

Harvesting

Harvest herbs by cutting a shoot back to just above a leaf. This gives you your harvest and encourages bushy regrowth. Regular pinching produces a stronger, fuller plant than plucking single leaves. In general, an herb's flavor is most pronounced just before the plant begins to flower, and in the morning, when essential oils are most concentrated.

Tips for Success

  • Perennial mints like spearmint, applemint, and peppermint are vigorous to the point of invasive. Grow them in containers, or sink the containers into the garden bed to corral the roots.
  • Herbs provide important habitat for beneficial insects; dill and fennel are particular favorites, and flowering herbs feed bees and other pollinators.
  • Perennial herbs that aren't hardy in your region can spend winter indoors. In USDA Zones 7 and colder, bring rosemary and lavender in before hard frost and keep them in a cool, bright spot until spring; in Zones 8 and warmer they can stay outdoors year-round. (Check your zone against the current USDA map; the 2023 revision shifted many areas a half-zone warmer.)
  • Interplant herb beds with annual flowers to hide post-harvest untidiness.
  • Keep experimenting. Herbs are forgiving, inexpensive, and quick, and there's always another variety to try.