Grow Your Own Herb Garden

Typically, when I tell people that you can grow and harvest your very own year-round supply of herbs, they're already ready to go with objections:

But... I don't have enough sun in my backyard.

But... I don't have space to grow anything.

But... it gets really cold where I live and all my herbs die.

Well, there are ways around each and every one of those objections.

Herbs are one of my favorite things to grow in the garden, and they're one of the easiest and most forgiving types of plants. They're also prolific. Almost every herb that you can grow is a cut-and-come-again variety, meaning you can harvest leaves, wait for more leaves to grow, and then return to harvest again.

My initial successes in the garden were with herbs. I was living with my family in a townhome at the time, and what little backyard space we had was sloped and covered in shade. I purchased a rosemary plant from a local nursery, kept it alive for a couple months in my kitchen window, and when the weather warmed up, planted it outside in our shaded backyard—where, to my surprise, it kept on growing.

My second success was all thanks to my mom. She came to visit us after one of our children was born and scattered some oregano seeds in front of our ornamental bushes in the front yard. I was shocked one day when I was sitting on the front stoop, holding my baby, and noticed little shoots of green emerging from the beds. As soon as the oregano had grown a couple of inches, I could cut sprigs, bring them inside, and have that garden-to-table feeling that powered me through months of exhaustion. I ended up having more rosemary and oregano than we could handle, all from just a little bitty patch of shaded outdoor space.

Let's get some of the basics out of the way before we delve further into the benefits of growing your own herb garden:

• Herbs can be grown indoors in a sunny windowsill or with an artificial light source. Herbs can be grown outdoors in sunny or shadier spots.
• Herbs can be grown in your landscape, next to ornamental shrubs and flowers. Herbs can also be grown in raised beds, pots, or containers.
• Herbs can be grown from seed or by cutting. Herbs also transplant well, meaning you can simply purchase a plant from the store and expect it to do well in your space.
• There are many different varieties of herbs that you can grow in your own space. Some will be used for seasoning your food, while others might be used for making teas or tinctures.

Now that we've established the many different ways you can grow herbs, let's look at the benefits of growing your own year-round supply of herbs.

Grow Your Own Herbs to Enjoy More Variety

A visit to any grocery store would lead you to conclude that there's one type of thyme and one type of basil. In reality, there are so many flavorful varieties out there of each and every herb, and you might only get to try them by growing your own. You could have your own herb garden filled with nothing but different types of basil and still be blown away at the flavor variations.

(Explore our favorite types of basil to grow.)

Grow Your Own Herbs to Enjoy the Freshest Flavors

Can you get any fresher than having an herb garden for your kitchen in your kitchen? Or maybe right outside your front door?

When you're growing your own herbs during their growing season, you can wait to harvest from them until you actually need them. That means you enjoy them at their peak flavor and quality. No more thyme turning brown in your produce drawer or sage growing mushy in one of those little plastic cups from the store before you can use them.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average American family tosses about $1,600 worth of food each year, and I'd bet a fair percentage of that is herbs that have passed their freshness.

Even if you do use up store-bought herbs the second you bring them home, they still won't taste as good as homegrown ones. Plus, if a recipe calls for a certain herb, it's a lot easier to pop out to your backyard herb garden to cut some sprigs than it is to run to the grocery store.

Add Garden-Fresh Herbs to Make Every Meal Feel Gourmet

It's so simple: you toss some fresh herbs onto a meal, and suddenly, that meal looks like you spent much more time lovingly preparing it. Fresh or stored herbs can instantly improve roasted vegetables, meat and fish, or whatever else you're cooking.

The first time I ever grew chives, I fell in love with the simplicity of snipping some chives from the little pot on our doorstep and then tossing them on some omelettes. It made me feel like Martha Stewart.

Save Money with Your Own Kitchen Herb Garden

Think of how much money you're spending if you're grabbing those little bags that contain a couple sprigs or containers of pre-chopped herbs from the store each week. Buying herbs, even dried ones, gets expensive fast.

In contrast, it's incredibly cheap to grow your own, especially if you're starting from seed. If you can keep an herb alive for even just a couple months, you will enjoy the highest return on your investment of any edible plant.

Even if you buy mature plants from the store, you often would only spend a bit more than on a plastic bag of herbs from the produce section. I know at my grocery store, a little bag of mint is $2.19. An organically grown mint plant is just $2.49. Not only do you get more leaves for just $0.30 more, you can obviously harvest from that plant more than once.

Not to mention, you never have to worry about the store running out of your favorite herbs.

Grow Your Own Herbs Outdoors for Edible Landscaping

When I say landscaping, the first herb you might think of is lavender, but there are many other herbs you could add to flower beds or decorative pots. I was able to grow bay laurel outdoors when I lived in Houston, and I bet my neighbors didn't know I was eating leaves from the two beautiful shrubs flanking my front entrance.

Many herbs are attractive plants that naturally want to grow outward and fill a space with their visually appealing color and texture. You can choose from upright varieties of many herbs like thyme and rosemary, or go with a draping type if you want stems to cascade over the side of a pot or container.

By the way, I'd really like to normalize growing herbs in beautiful planters right outside our front doors. Can we all agree to make this a thing?

Make Your Home Smell Delightful with an Indoor Herb Garden

Think of that potted rosemary in your windowsill as a house plant that smells incredible and that you can eat. All you have to do is run your hand over the leaves to create your own little aromatherapy session at home.

Even if you're growing herbs outdoors, you can bring cuttings indoors and make bouquets to put in your bedroom or bathroom for some beautiful and aromatic decor.

Sprinkle Herbs on Your Meals to Get More Nutrients

If you're struggling to get your kids (or yourself) to eat healthier, sprinkling some oregano onto homemade pizza or cilantro onto tacos is an excellent way to make sure there's always something green on their plates. Each leaf is packed with vitamins and nutrients that will instantly boost the nutritional value of the meal.

Plus, you know what you're not adding to your food: herbs containing harmful pesticides or other scary contaminants. When you grow your own herbs, you know everything that went into them and can guarantee their organic nature. (Don't worry—we have resources to teach you how to grow herbs organically here at Gardenary.)

Learn How to Grow Other Edible Plants by Starting with the Easiest to Grow

Herbs make great starter plants for those who want to learn how to garden. Starting your own little container herb garden is an inexpensive way to get your hands dirty before you decide if you're ready to commit to a larger kitchen garden outdoors.

These low-maintenance plants will also help you feel more connected to both the food you eat and to nature, even if you've only planted a couple of pots. Growing even a tiny bit of your own food is the best way to inspire you to think more deeply about our entire food system and the planet.

Reduce Plastic Packaging and Food Miles

Sure, herbs come in pretty small packaging, but those little bags and plastic cups add up. We all know the world has a major plastic problem, especially when it comes to plastics with short "working lives", meaning they serve a function like containing our food, before spending 1,000 years breaking down in a landfill.

Growing your own herbs means you can skip the single-use plastics. (If you buy a mature herb plant from the store, you can re-use that plastic pot if you ever decide to start your own seeds indoors). If enough of us did this, the food industry would have to reduce the number of plastic bags and boxes created and shipped to stores.

That would also, of course, reduce the food miles and fuel consumption that go into getting all those convenient little herb packets on shelves near you.

Are You Ready to Grow Your Own Herbs?

Wait, let me rephrase that: Are you ready to stop buying herbs from the grocery store and always have the freshest greens?

I don't know about you, but I have both my hands raised.

Now, I'm not saying you can grow herbs outdoors year round no matter where you live. I am saying that you can grow enough herbs during the months that you can garden outside to last you for the entire year. For many of you, that might look like growing herbs outdoors for six months, bringing your favorites inside in pots during the winter to cut from sparingly, and saving the rest of your herb harvests to last you through the colder months. It's possible to grow a big enough supply to enjoy the fruits of your labor long after the growing season has passed.

I've been growing my own year-round supply of herbs for years now. I can't remember the last time I had to buy herbs from the grocery store, and that includes both those little packets of fresh herbs and containers of dried herbs on the spice aisle. I have all the herbs I need stored in my pantry and in my freezer after being harvested straight from my garden.

And I'd love to teach you how to do that, too.

Learn How to Grow Your Own Herbs

Our online gardening course, Year-Round Herb Harvests, is now available inside a Gardenary 365 membership. This course teaches you the step by step to plant, grow, and harvest your very own supply of herbs to last you at least 365 days.

In this course, I'll cover:

• the different ways you can grow herbs based on your setup
• the best plants for your herb garden based on how much space/sunlight you have
• how to DIY your own herb garden planter
• how to harvest your herbs to encourage your plants to produce more leaves for you
• how to preserve herbs for the months when you won't have fresh harvests
• and more!

I'd love the opportunity to teach you how to grow your own herbs and for you to then inspire your friends and family to grow their own, too. If enough of us took my No More Grocery Store Herbs Pledge, we'd not only have more nutritious and delicious homegrown greens on our plates, we'd also be doing real good for the planet.

Thanks for helping me bring back the kitchen garden, one herb at a time!