Best Herbs To Grow At Home

Labels on store-bought herbs rarely reveal how plants are raised, let alone how long the ingredients are exposed to light and high temperatures while stored in their plastic containers. Grow your own to ensure the best quality and potency of your herbal remedies!

“The primary benefit is being able to develop a relationship with that herb,” says Jen Bredesen, an herbalist and teacher at the California School of Herbal Studies. Even novice gardeners can concoct simple home remedies like teas and salves using this list of the top nine easy-to-grow medicinal herbs.

Calendula is also known as pot marigold. It’s a centuries-old antifungal, antiseptic, wound-healing ally, according to the National Library of Medicine. The petals of these cheerful yellow and orange daisy-like flowers lend skin-soothing properties to many natural cosmetics and diaper creams.

Calendula is a freely reseeding annual that blooms all season long. It makes a lovely addition to gardens with full sun. Harvest the petals fresh. You can also dry entire blooms — which close in the evening — before they form seeds.

Cilantro boasts a unique flavor people either love or hate. The leaves often garnish Mexican and Thai dishes. The seeds, known as coriander, are a prime ingredient in Indian curries.

Few think of this plant as a medicinal herb, but studies show it’s a powerful digestive aid and may be capable of removing heavy metals and other toxic agents from the body.

Cilantro grows best in a cool, moist garden and will quickly bolt in hot weather. Look for slow bolt varieties from seed companies.




Packed with vitamins A and C, cysteine, magnesium, and zinc, this detox pesto adds both nutrition and flavor to eggs, stews, vegetables and rice.


Ingredients:

2 bunches cilantro
1 bunch other green herb/s: arugula, basil, dill, parsley, fennel, rosemary, thyme, kale
1 cup raw seeds (pumpkin or sunflower) &/or seed butter, like tahini
2 to 4 cloves garlic and/or 1 inch fresh Ginger root (optional)
1 tsp Miso (optional)
1 handful dried or toasted sea palm seaweed (optional, but recommended)
½ to 1 tsp sea salt, to taste
1 cup + olive oil, hemp seed oil and/or sesame oil
1 lemon or lime


Instructions:

Chop green herbs and set aside. Peel ginger root with edge of spoon, chop along grain, then fine chop across grain.

Place seeds, ginger, garlic, miso, and seaweed in blender or food processor. Add enough oil to cover. Blend on medium for a few seconds.

Add another 1/4 cup oil. Place chopped herbs in blender with juice of lemon/lime. Add another 1/4 cup oil.

Cover blender and pulse puree on low speed. Slowly increase the speed, adding oils as you blend. If ingredients seem stuck, scrape down sides of blender in between pulses.

Goal is a rich, creamy paste—don’t be afraid to keep adding oils until the desired consistency is reached. (Food processor variety will naturally be more coarse/chunky.)

This pesto will be your enzyme/protein rich EFA/greens source for several weeks. With the addition of the brown seaweed with the cilantro also serves to detox while feeding your system. Put on veggies, rice, meats, crudités/raw veggie sticks, just about anything savory!

Store in glass jars and refrigerate or freeze. It will keep up to three weeks in the fridge and up to two months in the freezer.

The oils, tannins, and bitters in lemon balm’s fragrant leaves and flowers have a relaxing antispasmodic effect on the stomach and nervous system. It may help fight off viruses like herpes simplex when used topically, according to the NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC).

Lemon balm is tasty and gentle enough for children when prepared in teas or tinctures with a glycerin base.

This calming and uplifting perennial makes a pretty patch of bright green in the garden and is a great plant to grow fresh. The dried herb loses some potency after six months.





This delicious tea and can be served with honey and lemon throughout the day to alleviate stress and anxiety, soothe an upset digestive tract and help relieve menstrual cramps.
Ingredients:

Dried Lemon balm Leaves
Dried Peppermint Leaves

Instructions:

Add 2 tsp. mixture of dried leaves per 1 cup of boiling water.
Take no more than 2-3 cups per day.

Spearmint and peppermint are familiar flavors in toothpaste and chewing gum. Both pack a powerfully refreshing zing, but the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) reports that peppermint makes stronger medicine than its more culinary cousin.

Peppermint may relieve digestive discomforts like indigestion and vomiting when brewed as tea. It can also soothe sore muscles when applied topically as a liquid or lotion.

All mints spread rampantly in a moist garden. Consider growing each plant in its own large pot. Harvest leaves just before flowering. Any longer and they’ll begin to taste bitter.

Rosemary is the great reviver. This perennial woody herb stimulates energy and optimism and sharpens memory and concentration by bringing more oxygen to your brain, according to Georgetown University Medical Center. It’s a wonderfully stimulating alternative to caffeine when you need that second wind.

A row of these long-lived and drought-tolerant plants makes a beautiful, bee-friendly evergreen hedge. You may only need one plant in your garden — a little goes a long way.






Ingredients:

Fresh rosemary leaves
Fresh spearmint leaves
Vodka

Instructions:

Chop a mixture of fresh rosemary and spearmint leaves and place in a canning-type jar.

Pour 80 proof vodka over the top of the herbs until completely covered. Put the lid on tightly and label the container with the ingredients and date. This is the menstruum.

Store the menstruum at room temperature, shaking vigorously every couple of days.

After 2-8 weeks, squeeze out the menstruum by straining the infused cider through a cotton cloth in the bottom of a colander. Compost the plant material.

Store the finished tincture in clean, labeled, and tightly closed dark glass bottles for up to one year.

Mullein’s soothing an properties may help heal bronchial respiratory infections, according to NYULMC. The leaves are commonly added to cough formulas.

Give this handsome and stately biennial plenty of space, and stand back in wonder. The sturdy, yellow-flowered stem will emerge from within a rosette of thick, hairy leaves, reaching skyward nearly six feet!

This groundcover’s delicate stems and tiny leaves belie the tremendous power attributed to it by Europeans in the Middle Ages. Many believed in the herb’s ability to heighten bravery and ward off nightmares.

Modern herbalists rely on the antibacterial and antiseptic properties of thyme’s oils to prevent winter colds and flu. Many cultivars exist beyond the straight species, including sweet-tasting citrus varieties that are perfect tummy remedies for children.

Long recognized for its sweet perfume, lavender also boasts medical benefits as a mild antidepressant that may also benefit your nervous system, according to some studies. Add lavender oil to your bath to alleviate stress, tension, and insomnia. It's also used in creams to treat sunburns and acne.

Woody lavender plants prefer hot, sunny, and dry environments. The fresh flowers are tasty in small doses when added to salads, honey, butter, lemonade, and even shortbread cookies. If you’re crafty, try sewing up an herbal heating pad or eye pillow with the fragrant dried flowers.

People usually associate lavender with two specific traits: its fragrance and its color. But you may not know that the lavender flower and the oil derived from it have long histories in herbal medicine.

The most common form of lavender is English lavender, but there are also French, Dutch, and Portuguese varieties. While the color lavender is usually light purple or bluish violet, the actual flowers can be white, blue, or pink. It tends to grow in sunny, rocky areas and is native to the mountains of the Mediterranean region. It also grows in North America and Australia.

Its name derives from the Latin root lavare, which literally means, "to wash." The earliest recorded use of lavender dates back to ancient Egypt. There, lavender oil played a role in the mummification process. During later historical periods, lavender became a bath additive in several regions, including Persia, ancient Greece, and Rome. These ancient cultures believed that lavender helped purify the body and mind.

Since ancient times, lavender has been used to treat many different ailments, including:

mental health issues
anxiety
insomnia
depression
headaches
hair loss
nausea
acne
toothaches
skin irritations
cancer

Lavender is most commonly used in aromatherapy. Fragrance from the essential oils of the lavender plant is believed to help promote calmness and wellness. It’s also said to help reduce stress, anxiety, and possibly even mild pain. One study found that topically applying lavender, plus sage and rose, could reduce the severity of menstrual cramps.


Perillyl alcohol (POH) is derived from several different essential oils, including lavender, peppermint, cherries, sage, and lemongrass. While early evidence is conflicting, scientists are currently exploring POH's role in preventing and treating cancer.

This form of aromatherapy has been used to help people with cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, fragrant aromatherapy can help manage side effects of cancer treatment. Smell receptors send messages that can affect mood to the brain. It may also help adults who suffer from dementia. While many people swear by its aromatic healing powers, there isn't much scientific evidence to support these claims. Many of the tests conducted around lavender have had conflicting results.

It can help you sleep. Once upon a time, lavender was recommended for people suffering from insomnia or other sleep disorders. People stuffed their pillows with lavender flowers to help them fall asleep and get a better night's rest.

Today, aromatherapists use lavender to treat headaches and nervousness or restlessness. Massage therapists sometimes apply lavender oil to the skin, which might function both as a calming agent and a potential sleep aid. In Germany, lavender tea has been approved as a supplement to treat sleep disruptions, restlessness, and stomach irritation.




The only form of lavender you should take by mouth is lavender tea. Lavender essential oil can be toxic when swallowed.

Lavender oil isn’t recommended for children, and may have negative developmental effects on young boys.


It can help relieve certain skin and hair issues. Topical use of lavender oil might help to treat a disease called alopecia aerate, which causes a person's hair to fall out in patches. In one study, people rubbed the essential oils of lavender, thyme, rosemary, and cedarwood on the areas where hair had fallen out. Some experienced hair regrowth over the course of seven months. However, there’s no way for the researchers to determine which of the oils was responsible.

When applied to the skin, lavender oils have shown positive results in helping with eczema, acne, sunburns, and diaper rash.

Delicate, apple-scented chamomile demonstrates that mild doesn’t mean ineffective. It’s primarily grown for its small, yellow-bellied flowers.

The NCCIH reports that chamomile is one of the best herbs for treating colic, nervous stress, infections, and stomach disorders in children. In fact, it was chamomile tea that Peter Rabbit’s mother fixed for him after his stressful chase in Mr. McGregor’s garden!

These easy-to-grow herbs bring health benefits to your garden as well as your family. Many attract beneficial insects, including bees. They can also help repel harmful pests from more sensitive plants nearby.



Be sure to choose plants that suit the light, water, and temperature conditions of your garden. For example, rosemary, lavender, and mullein are best for warm, dry spots in full sun. Cilantro and mint prefer rich, moist areas with shade.