The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Growing Herbs Organically

Herbs are where it’s at! If you want to up your cooking skills, they’re ideal for lending flavor to fresh, cooking, and preserving recipes. Chop cilantro in tacos, put basil on pizza, and decorate meals with sprigs of parsley. Herbs add color, flavor, and texture to dishes that would otherwise be bland and tasteless without them.

Not only are these aromatic plants helpful in the kitchen, but they’re also easy to grow! Many are woody shrubs with tough leaves; they’re drought-tolerant and frost-hardy. Others are tender, quick-growing annuals with immense flavor despite their short lifespans.

Some herbs, like lavender, are mainly used for their aromatic properties. Others, like chamomile and ginger, are medicinal and edible. The most common herbs we use for cooking are basil, cilantro, and parsley. 

While many of these plants are available globally in stores, they once were localized in distinct regions. Cultures across the world relied on specific herbal plants, giving rise to the associations we know today between specific cuisines and herbal plants.  

Perennials

Perennial herbs grow in a few different ways. Some, like lavender and rosemary, are evergreen shrubs with woody limbs. They sprout fleshy, green stems that harden over time, and their leaves are tough and hardy to resist heat, drought, and frost. Others, like basil, are evergreen but frost-tender, growing well in warm regions or as annuals in cold ones.

A few perennial herbs grow for a few seasons before entering a dormant state. They emerge from the ground after their dormancy with tender stems and lush foliage. Chives, mint, and marjoram are some examples of these types. 

Annuals

Annual herbs fit into small spaces within the garden. Most of the ones we cook with are annuals, like cilantro, basil, and dill. They add fresh, intense flavor to meals. Some meals aren’t the same without them—imagine eating pickles without dill!

While perennials need specific conditions to grow throughout the year, annuals thrive in a wide range of environments. Most grow best in rich, fertile soil with full sun. Plant them successively for an endless harvest during the warm months. 

Native Plants

Some U.S. native plants are also herbal species. Native plants offer valuable pollen and nectar in their flowers for pollinators, seeds for birds, and habitat space for birds and small mammals. They’re perfect for helping wildlife! Herbal native plants help animals while also providing you with edible leaves or flowers.

Which native herbs are best for your garden depends on your local region. Yerba buena, or Clinopodium douglasii botanically, is a mint relative that thrives in western states. It’s perfect for tea-making or baking into desserts. It’s one of the many wild, edible plants of North America. 

The Growing Site

Setting up your growing site is a crucial part of the process of growing herbs organically. You want to choose a site with plenty of sun, with either full sun or partial shade exposures. Six or more hours of direct sunlight is ideal. 

Consistent moisture is key. Use sprinklers, drip irrigation, or a soaker hose to wet your beds. Ensure the soil is loose, fertile, and well-drained. Sites with heavy clay or sandy soil benefit from a heaping helping of compost. Amend them months ahead of planting to let the compost break down and release their microbes, nutrients, and worms into the ground. 

Some plants, like lavender and rosemary, tolerate poor soils with little nutrients and poor drainage. They’re tough and hardy, unlike the common tender species that need rich garden soils to thrive. 

Herbs thrive in a wide variety of planting sites. Grow them in the ground or inside raised beds, containers, and planters. The method of planting you choose may influence which plants you’ll grow. 

In The Ground

If you’re growing these fragrant plants in the ground, the soil must be loose enough for their roots to penetrate. Clay soils are particularly challenging, while sandy sites are also difficult to work with. Amend them with compost ahead of planting to ensure your plants grow well.

Drought-tolerant species are best for dry, sandy sites with free-draining soil. Sage, rosemary, wormwood, and lavender are excellent specimens for sunny, dry sites. Consider your garden’s conditions, and make decisions accordingly to set plants up for success. 

Use wet-loving species in clay sites, as clay soil stays moist for long periods of time. Mint species, wild ginger, and dandelions work well in sites with compacted earth.

Raised Beds

If your soil is hard to work with and you’d rather not amend it, try growing in raised beds instead! Place them directly on top of lawns, bare grounds, or empty sites. Tall, medium, and short beds exist for a variety of deep or shallow-rooted plants. 

Fill your raised beds with an organic bed mix, or make your own soil blend. Combine coco coir, compost, and porous materials like perlite, pumice, or vermiculite. Mix it all up, then fill each bed until they’re all full. 

If you have tall raised beds, consider using hugelkultur to fill them! It’s a method of using old wood logs to fill the bottom of the beds. They decay over time, creating a cozy home for plant roots while also taking up space in the beds. 

Containers

Patios, balconies, and porches are excellent areas for container gardens. Many herbs thrive in containers, especially shallow-rooted annuals. Grow dill, coriander, and basil amongst tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Plant them separately in small containers, or grow them together in large pots.

Drainage is essential when growing plants in containers. Incorporate perlite, vermiculite, or pumice into your soil mix, and add compost for an added boost. You’ll need to add nutrients every few months with compost or organic fertilizers to ensure your plants stay happy and healthy.

Borders

Many herbal species are relatively narrow and compact, making them perfect selections for borders along driveways, walkways, and hellstrips. Others, like garden sage, tolerate pruning to fit into whatever spaces you’d like them to. 

Avoid growing rambling spreaders like Roman chamomile in these spaces, as they’ll ramble outside the borders and require frequent cutting back. Fill empty spaces in borders with annual herbs like parsley and dill; they may reseed in temperate zones!

Tree Wells

Tree wells, like borders, are often thin and narrow spaces between other garden sites. Because they’re next to trees, they’re often partially shady or full of dappled sunlight. Pick shade-tolerant herbs to avoid adverse conditions like powdery mildew and leggy stems.

Mint works well in the shade, though it tends to spread rapidly from where you plant it. Consider miner’s lettuce, chervil, or sweet cicely for tree wells, as they benefit from growing in shady exposures. 

Organic Growing

When it comes to growing herbs organically, it’s important to consider the larger ecosystem at hand. The plants, flowers, and fruits of your yard are a part of the local landscape. They feed birds, bees, butterflies, moths, and pesky squirrels!

When you consider the local ecosystem, you let natural balances return to your yard. Ladybugs eat aphids, predatory wasps kill caterpillars, and beneficial mites eat spider mites. Use nature to your advantage and you’ll avoid fighting against it!

The Power of Mulch

Mulch is incredibly beneficial and almost essential for growing herbs organically! A layer two to three inches thick will insulate, feed, and enrich the ground. It’ll conserve moisture by preventing it from evaporating while also soaking up water into its porous particles. 

Compost is the best mulch, as it’s made of decomposed materials rich in nitrogen and carbon, the two elements plants need in large quantities. It’s easy to make at home, or you can find it at landscape supply shops, home improvement stores, or local nurseries. 

Woodchips, leaf mold, and leaf litter are other superb mulches to try. Ensure you don’t cover up any tender seedlings when you place mulch down. Also, avoid piling it up on the stems or crowns of mature plants. 

Types of Fertilizers

If you’re choosing to grow your herbs organically, you’ll have to consider the microbes, worms, and bugs present in the dirt. Synthetic fertilizers are full of harsh salts that build up over time—they strip the ground of life, killing microbes and collapsing the soil food web.

Choose organic fertilizers instead. They aren’t immediately available to herbs, though they break down after a week or two. They’re made of organic materials like bone meal, guano, and kelp. When you apply them to the ground, microbes break them down into smaller particles that plant roots can access. 

Pest Management

Pesticide usage is also important to consider when growing herbs organically. Synthetic pesticides, especially when overused or misapplied, have harmful effects on the local environment. They can harm bees, birds, and butterflies if they come into contact with the chemicals. 

Organic pesticides are equally as harmful when misapplied or overused, though they tend not to last as long in the environment. They break down with natural processes, and they aren’t synthetically derived. 

Before grabbing any pesticide, consider using integrated pest management, or IPM for short, to combat pests while having little effect on local wildlife. It uses mechanical and biological control methods to reduce harm to the environment while also preventing damage to your herbs. 

Habitats for Wildlife

Choose to grow herbs organically to help your local critters! Every herb you grow provides them with habitat space, food, and nesting materials. Bees, birds, butterflies, and moths feed on floral nectar and pollen, animals eat the fruits, while birds love feeding on the seeds. 

Beneath the roots, worms, grubs, and mites live where it’s cozy and warm. The more herbs you plant, the more fungi, bacteria, and microbes will thrive in the ground. The more plants, the better!

Frequently Asked Questions