Is there anything better than sprinkling fresh basil pesto over some wholewheat pasta? Herbs bring out the flavor and fragrance in food. They delight your taste buds and tickling the nose with aromatic essence.
Whether you’re adding rosemary to a leg or roast lamb or shredding some fresh mint for cocktails, herbs round out both meals and drinks.
Have you ever thought about growing herbs at home? It’s surprisingly easy and not as challenging as you think. You can grow an herb garden indoors or outdoors, and it doesn’t take much space to get huge yields.
This post looks at our favorite herbs to grow at home. Head out to the nursery and get yourself some seeds or order some seedlings for a fast start to your garden.
How to Grow Herbs at Home?
Growing herbs in an indoor or outdoor garden is a great way to bring more color and aroma into your yard. Herbs are easy to grow, and you don’t need to be a super-star green thumb gardener to succeed with your herb garden.
When the garden is in full swing in the summer, you’ll find that the lovely aromatic scents waft throughout the yard or your kitchen, creating an appealing aroma that rejuvenates the mind. The sweet fragrance of herbs, like basil, also attracts pollinators into the yard.
One of the best reasons for growing herbs at home is that you can do it indoors or outdoors, and you don’t need much space for a thriving herb garden. Herbs grow readily in standard soil with no special amendments, and they’ll give you several harvests throughout the year, especially if you’re growing indoors.
All it takes to grow a spectacular herb garden is a small container, some decent soil, a bit of water, and some sunlight. It’s important to note that herbs grow just as well indoors as they do outdoors. Plant your herbs in a windowsill box in the kitchen, and keep your herbs growing right through the winter.
If you continue to harvest your herbs throughout the year, the plants gain resilience, bushing out into strong, robust plants you can divide and give to friends or plants in other areas of the garden.
What are the Best Herbs to Grow at Home?
Here are our favorite herbs to grow in indoor and outdoor gardens. Choose your favorites and start planting!
Rosemary
If you’re roasting some lamb chops in the oven, sprinkle a few sprigs of rosemary on the meat to accentuate the flavor of the lamb. Rosemary grows in tall sprigs, with large, mature plants measuring up to two or three feet tall.
You can control the size of your rosemary bush by dividing it throughout the growing season. Rosemary grows readily with water, sunlight, and soil, and there’s no need for any special nutrients. You also have the option of turning your rosemary into an extract to benefit from the potent cognitive and circulatory benefits of the herb.
Parsley
Parsley goes on anything, from adding it to garlic butter to seasoning for fish; it’s easy to grow in all climates, indoors and outdoors. Parsley bushes can get up to two feet tall if left to grow unattended. However, most plants have short stature, especially after harvesting.
Parsley is one of our favorite herbs to grow due to its hardy, resilient nature. You can clip from your plant once or twice a week, and it keeps growing back bigger and bushier each time. One plant can easily yield a years’ worth of parsley.
Parsley likes water, but the roots don’t enjoy waterlogged soli. The herb also has a penchant for nitrogen, and a lack of this element in the soil will show in yellowing leaves. Add some fertilizer to the plant, and you’ll see it turn back to a brilliant green.
Mint
We love a cup of steaming green tea with freshly shredded mint. The warm feel of the menthol wafting through our nostrils clears the sinus and stimulates the mind, relaxing the nervous system. Please make sure you plant mint in a mid-sized pot, as it’s easy for the pant to get root-bound in small containers.
Growing mint is surprisingly easy. The plant, like parsley, grows reading, and it’s easy to harvest, with new leaves shooting and turning mature in just a few days during the height of the growing season. Mint grows readily in the sunlight or the shade, and it’s a good choice for indoor or outdoor gardens.
Mint leaves have a potent scent, and you only need one or two of them in your tea or caipirinha to experience the menthol flavor of the plant. Mint is another plant that’s an excellent choice for pressing into extracts. The soothing flavor and scent of mint is a relaxant, and it’s great for adding to bathwater or a humidifier.
Chives
Chives are another excellent addition to any herb garden. Chives have a light onion flavor, and as part of the Allium family, they act as a natural anti-microbial and anti-fungal agent. Chives taste great when blended into butter pats or when diced and added to various dishes, from fish to meat and cheese sauces.
Create a border around your veggie garden using chives. The natural allium in the chives releases a scent that drives away bugs from your other plants. The long stalks to the chive brow up to half a foot in length, and they’re great to snip into salads right out of the garden.
Chives grow readily indoors and outdoors. They thrive across all USDA zones in the US, from the north to the mid-west, and even as far as California. However, the plants will do better in cold weather conditions, and they need a decent amount of rain to thrive.
When harvesting chives, you can snip away the green stems, leaving around a third of the green above the soil. The chive will continue to grow, giving you further harvesting opportunities throughout the growing season.
Basil
Basil is an herb essential for your garden. Basil goes with everything, from pizza and pasta to fresh salads and roasted meats or fish dishes. It’s one of the most fragrant herbs in the garden., And its scent attracts pollinators and birds to your yard.
Basil does well in the full sun. So if you’re planting it in an indoor garden, you’ll need to ensure the windowsill gets at least six to eight hours of sunlight each day. Basil has an aromatic scent and a sweet taste, and it’s available in several different specifies. Sweet basil is our favorite, and it’s a good choice for cooking or using in cocktails.
Thyme
You can grow time in pots or plant it directly into your vegetable garden. Thyme is another sweet-scented herb, and it’s a great addition to cooking. Thyme is resilient, and it grows quickly. If you let the plant mature during the growing season, it branches out to form a “mat” on the floor, and you can even walk on it without damaging the plant.
Thyme allows for several harvests throughout the year, giving you numerous opportunities to collect its sweet-scented leaves throughout the year. If you want to overwinter your thyme plant, toss some straw on it or burlap, and it has all it needs to survive the winter months.
Thyme enjoys a sheltered spot in the garden that receives full sunlight throughout the day. Two of our favorite species of thyme include the lemon and wooly variants.
Lavender
Lavender technically isn’t an “herb.” It’s a shrub, but it displays many of the same characteristics as herbs. Lavender grows readily outdoors, forming a stocky shrub that continues to grow outwards during the summer season. You’ll have to divide the plant each year to ensure it doesn’t overtake areas of your yard.
Lavender is excellent to add to a potpourri blend or to press into oils. Lavender provides a soothing and relaxing effect when added to bathwater or a dehumidifier. The essential oil extract is available online, or you can make it yourself with your lavender plant.
Lavender likes growing in direct sunlight, and it needs plenty of water, along with well-drained soil. Lavender is more of an outdoor plant as growing it indoors can create a somewhat overpowering scent around your home.
Oregano
Oregano is another fantastic herb for adding to culinary dishes. Like basil, it tastes great fresh or dry, and you can easily cure oregano leaves at home to add to your dried herb collection. The plant does well indoors and outdoors, growing into a short-statured bush.
Some growers even use oregano as a ground cover. The plant loves the full sun, and it needs well-draining soil and decent amounts of nutrients to thrive. The plant isn’t thirsty, and it’s reasonably tolerant to dry conditions. Like basil, the more you harvest from the bush, the faster and thicker it grows.
General Tips For Growing Herbs At Home
- Plant herbs in small containers rather than directly in the soil.
- Make sure containers have adequate drainage to prevent root rot.
- When planting in containers, use a high-quality potting mix.
- Choose liquid fertilizers over manure.
- Store your seeds in paper bags in a cool area of your home until the planting season rolls around.
