Growing your own medicinal herb garden can be a rewarding and connecting experience that will provide an abundance of natural remedies to support yourself, and your friends and family through the seasons. It is a great way to connect more deeply with the herbs that you love, and cultivate medicines that are fresh, vibrant and potent. In this article I will share with you some tips and considerations to get you started in visioning and creating your dream herb garden.

Though many medicinal herbs have been in cultivation for thousands of years, the vast majority of these remarkable plants have changed very little from their wild ancestors that exist in nature. Unlike our familiar vegetable crops, which have been bred over countless generations to be virtually unrecognizable to their wild ancestors (and are now heavily dependent on us for their survival), most medicinal herbs are essentially still wild plants.

Since medicinal herbs are wild plants that evolved independently, they are able to adapt to a wide variety growing conditions and thrive with very little tending on our part. Ease of growing is one of the great appeals of herb gardening. Medicinal herbs are resilient and adaptable, and often have many additional virtues, such as their ornamental aesthetic, their attractiveness as pollinator plants, and value as companion plants in the garden.

To help you choose the herbs that are right for your site, I have put together quick planning and harvesting guides for common annual and perennial herbs. In the guides you will find a selection of herbs that are easy to grow and can help support a wide variety of ailments. To view these handy resources, click the links in this paragraph, or scroll to the end of this article to access them there.

A mixed bed of perennials and self-sowing annuals and biennials. This bed is naturally quite dry due to the large Fir trees that pull up many gallons of water each day. The sun-drenched bed is home to a variety of drought tolerant plants, such as Mullein, Weld, Anise-Hyssop, Teasel, Hollyhock, and Yarrow, and is left unirrigated through the growing season.

What herbs will you use?

To set yourself up for success, when starting your herb garden for the very first time consider starting small with a dozen or less varieties. Think about choosing a handful herbs that you will find useful, are suited to your growing site, and that require minimal care. You can add to your garden as you gain confidence and experience, and can begin introducing more challenging, or new and interesting herbs over time.

Consider what herbs you will use on a regular basis. If you are an avid user of herbal teas, tinctures, salves and other products, what are the products/herbs you rely on most often throughout the year to support yourself and your friends and family? If you are new to using herbs as medicine, you may wish to think about what some of the common health issues that come up regularly for you and your family, and research what herbs are good for those ailments.

Common ailments that pop up for most families include colds and flus, headaches, body pain, insect bites, burns, wounds, infections, digestive upset, anxiety, and stress. Since these ailments are bound to come up now and then, planting herbs to support them is a sure bet and will give you a powerful tool kit when they arise. It can feel very connecting and empowering to be able to walk out to your garden and find simple and effective remedies to these common conditions.

Many herbs have multiple uses and can treat many different issues that come up, so it is wonderful that you only need a very small collection of herbs to cover all a very wide range of issues. For instance Yarrow, which is an entire medicine chest in one single herb, will help with all of these common ailments listed above. Other popular herbs that help support a very wide range of common ailments include Holy Basil, Chamomile, Mugwort, and Wood Betony…and there are many more.

The next step in planning your garden is to discover if your desired herb can grown in your local climate and in the natural conditions available at your growing site. Where there might be herbs that can be challenging to grow in your location, you might find alternatives that can be swapped in in their place. For example Turmeric is commonly used for general inflammation and joint pain, but it requires a long growing season and a greenhouse to be productive, conditions which might not be available to every gardener.

If it is difficult to create the ideal conditions in your garden for a certain herb, research other herbs that can be grown easily in your local climate. A few other herbs that are amazing for inflammation and join pain, and can be grown in cooler zones, include Fireweed, Meadowsweet, Solomon’s Seal, Mullein, Horsetail, and Arnica (topically). It can be exciting to discover local options, and it may help you find powerful and effective remedies that you may not have explored otherwise.

A perennial boarder featuring Echinacea, Marshmallow, Blue Vervain and Elecampane. This naturally boggy corner of the farm with loose loamy soil, was utilized to establish perennials that need a bit more moisture during the growing season and room to spread their medicinal roots. Planting them up against a fence helps shelter the plants and trap heat, making the most of the Southeast exposure.

Finding your niche

Each garden site has its own little microclimate that forms from a combination of factors such as sun exposure, drainage, soil type and quality, existing trees and shrubs, and the climate of your region. An important step in planning your garden is to take the time to understand the basic growing conditions that are naturally available to you in your yard or garden plot. Knowing these conditions helps you pick plants that will thrive in your area with little effort from you.

Sun exposure. Since most herbs need to be grown in full sun (6+ hours of direct sun during the day), sun exposure can be the main limiting factor that one might run into when hoping to grow a herb garden. There are a few exceptions, but it is important to note that even if a plant will grow or survive in the shade or part shade, that doesn’t mean it will be potent medicinally. The energy of the sun is needed to stimulate and concentrate the potent medicinal constituents in many herbs, and without the needed sun exposure the constituents won’t be produced by the plants in any meaningful concentration.

Our farm is tucked away in on a well-drained slope surrounded by mature forest. The exposure provides for ample sun thought the day, with the trees creating pockets of partial shade. This provides us with multiple growing zones around the farm, allowing us to grow a wide variety of herbs that thrive under different conditions.

Generally south-facing gardens receive full sun all day, perfect for most medicinal herbs. West-facing gardens usually provide part sun (3-6 hrs of sun per day) and can also provide the right habitat for medicinals, these gardens usually have shade in the morning and then get bathed in the strong sun of the afternoon and evening. East-facing gardens get morning sun and evening shade, and may allow for some of the herbs that enjoy part-sun to thrive. North-facing gardens are more shady during the day, making them less ideal for most herbs.

While most herbs will do well in full sun, a few examples of herbs that may do well in part sun, or sometimes even part shade, include Cleavers, Chickweed, Skullcap, Comfrey, Nettle, and Marshmallow. If you have a primarily shaded garden you may want to consider growing native woodland herbs such as Western Bleeding Heart, Sweet Coltsfoot, or Wild Ginger.

Soil quality. Fortunately soil type and quality aren’t going to be a major factor for a large number of herbs, as many will grow in very poor soil with very little organic matter or nutrients. In fact, for many herbs, such as Yarrow, St. John’s Wort, Mugwort, Motherwort, Wood Betony, and many others, the more deficient the soil the more potent medicinally the plant will be. The stress caused by deficient soil will stimulate the plants secondary metabolites - these metabolites are the chemicals the plants produce to survive in harsh conditions and ward off predators, and are also the same chemicals we value as the medicinal constituents of the plant.

There are a few herbs that do benefit from fertile garden soil, and the easiest way to improve soil is to add compost, use mulches, cover crops, or add seaweed in fall. Herbs that enjoy fertile soil include Echinacea, Valerian, Skullcap, Nettle, Marshmallow, and Elecampane. These are examples of herbs that can be interplanted amongst the veggies in a sunny veggie garden.

Moisture availability. This is another factor that isn’t going to be massively limiting for your ability to grow a large number of different medicinal herbs. The vast majority of herbs are very drought tolerant and once established will thrive exclusively on the natural precipitation available through the growing season. As long as there is ample sun, many drought tolerant herbs can adapt to locations that are more moist or recieve regular water.

Herbs that will thrive in a moist spot include Fireweed, Goldenrod, Skullcap, Nettle, Mint, and Marshmallow. Some factors that will effect the moisture content of your site include the slope of the land and elevation of the beds, any large trees and shrubs that may hog moisture, the soil type (clay soil holds more water than sandy soil), and the sun exposure. Mulches go a long way to holding moisture in the soil, and many herbs are adaptable to a wide variety of conditions.

On our farm we have separate beds for perennials and annuals. The annual beds are planted with new crops each season (in the photo above we have a large row of Milk Thistle, annual flowers for seed, and a small patch of Milky Oats). Having all of our annuals together in rows and separate beds allows up to better tend to them and meet their needs for water, weeding and other maintenance. Perennials on the other hand need very little tending and do well in various permanent sites around the farm.

Try to utilize the natural growing conditions inherent to your property by selecting plants that are naturally well-suited to your specific site conditions. Keep in mind that all of your medicinal plants don’t have to be confined to a single herb bed. In fact, since each plant has its unique needs for soil, sunlight, and nutrients, it can be more beneficial to distribute them in suitable spots throughout your yard. You may wish to integrate them with your ornamental perennials, annual flowers, or in the veggie beds. This approach allows each plant to thrive in its ideal environment while enhancing the overall beauty, diversity and ecological harmony of your garden.

How much space do you need?

The answer to this question is going to be quite personal, depending on which herbs you’d like to grow, thier size, the volume of harvestable herb per plant, and what types of preparations you wish to make. How much space do you have to use? If you have unlimited space you’ll want to consider how much time will you have to maintain the garden, harvest and process the herbs. Keep in mind that a herb that can take 20 minutes to harvest can then take many hours to process!

If limited on space, consider the types of preparations you will be using. One Motherwort plant can have a foot print of 1.5’-2’ wide and provide enough tincture for one family for many years. On the other hand, you’ll find the same plant won’t go as far if dried and used for tea, and a family might use that amount of herb up in less than a year if taken daily. If you are growing to mainly make tinctures and salves for yourself, and your close friends and family, a 10’x20’ plot may be all you need; if you are growing herbs to supply the same group of people with tea herbs for the year you may need double that space depending on the herbs chosen.

The growth habit and the part of the plant used are also considerations. If a herb is big and leafy like Motherwort, you’ll get a quite lot of useable herb off each plant. Other herbs that provide a lot of harvestable plant material are leafy herbs like Fireweed, Goldenrod, Anise-Hyssop, California Poppy, and Borage. Agrimony, one of my favourite tea herbs, also has a big leafy growth habit. To have enough dried herb to blend casually in my personal tea blends all year long I might need 3-4 plants, whereas to provide myself with enough tincture for the year I probably wouldn’t even need to harvest half of one plant.

Herbs that you harvest only the flowers from will require more space to provide a useable volume of harvestable herb. Chamomile should be sown in a minimum plot of 2’x2’ to provide enough flowers for a single person to have tea throughout the year. Calendula for a single person’s needs would be similar, as would be the area needed for enough St. John’s Wort flowering tops.

A basket of freshly harvested Chamomile flowers. One plant may only provide a dozen or so of these tiny flowers every few days, making them time consuming to harvest and a variety that requires a larger patch to be grown to provide a good harvest.

Aesthetic appeal & function stacking

Is creating a beautiful space that invites and inspires you important? Or is your main focus to grow as many herbs as possible in the most efficient manner? The simplest way to manage and harvest your herbs for efficiency and space is to plant them in tidy blocks and rows. If aiming for beauty, consider planting your herbs as you would an ornamental perennial bed. Plant in groups of 3-5 plants per variety with varing bloom times, colours and textures. Consider the mature height of each variety and make sure to plant the tallest plants at the back of the bed, with medium sized and successively shorter plants in front.

When planning your garden consider what other functions the medicinal plants might serve. Perhaps you wish to create a bee and butterfly garden, or interplant them in your veggie beds or around your fruit trees to attract pollinators or repel harmful pests. Do some of the medicinals you wish to grow also double as culinary herbs or have edible flowers? It may be helpful to have these near where you harvest your kitchen herbs or salad greens. If you love making fresh flower bouquets you may wish to choose herbs that also make wonderful cut flowers (view the guides at the end of the article for ideas!).

Russian Comfrey is an example of a herb with many uses. An important medicinal for healing torn ligaments, broken bones, and soothing skin irritations, Comfrey is also a favourite nectar plant for bees. A stately and ornamental plant, the roots travel deep into the soil bringing up nutrients and making them available to other plants, additionally Comfrey leaves can also be used as a garden fertilizer or green mulch.

*Echinacea is harvested for its immune boosting medicinal flowers and roots. It is also a wonderful pollinator plant, and an incredibly beautiful ornamental perennial.*

Let the plants do the planning

Try as we might, we are never going to be able to fully stamp our ideas and ideals on a living garden that has needs and ideas of its own. And for me, one of the most delightful things about growing any kind of garden is watching how the plants will choose where they like to grow best. I prefer to be a co-creator in the garden, letting wildness play a role in the way the gardens take shape. The garden becomes a creative entity that responds on it own to the elements and evolves from season to season and year to year.

To be a gardener is to be a student of nature, and it is exciting to discover what each garden would like to be and observe who wants to be there. Co-creating with the land and its inhabitants in this way is deeply informative and rewarding; the resulting garden may not be the picture-perfect dream you initially imagined, but the result is a living breathing delight and sanctuary to many.

Medicinal plants are resilient and forgiving. If you find that a certain variety is struggling where you planted it, give it a season or two to get established. If it just doesn’t like that spot, the wonderful thing is you can just dig it up and move it somewhere more suitable. To not risk stressing the plant during its peak window of growth, make sure to do this during the dormant season (late summer and early spring are the best times to move plants).

*Our wild and wonderful farm in the peak of summer. Wood Betony is pictured in bloom in the foreground with a cascade of Weld, Teasel, and Sweet Fennel volunteering behind.*

Harvesting & Planting Guides

These two quick reference guides can be used as resources to help you choose herbs that are easy to grow, and select them by medicinal use, growing conditions, and more. Click on each guide to download a PDF version for easier viewing.

Annual herbs only take one year to complete their life cycle. Annuals grow from seed, produce leaves and flowers, produce seed, and die all in one year. Annuals only live for one year so must be replanted each season, but they are often self-sowing and will return year after year from seeds produced by the previous years flowers. The benefit of annuals is that they will be harvestable in the first year of growth so you won’t have to wait long to enjoy them.

Perennial herbs return each year from dormant roots, and live for many years. The average life of a perennial garden herb, such as Rosemary, Elecampane, or Wormwood for example is 20-30 years. Perennials grown from seed usually grow leaves and establish strong roots during the first year, and only begin blooming the second year onward. Aerial parts (leaves and flowers) are generally harvested from the second year onward once the plant has had a chance to become established. Roots of perennials are generally harvested at the end of the second or third years.

Dreaming your Herb Garden | A planning guide for the home grower