Cooking homegrown vegetables straight from the garden is a core part of homesteading, but growing herbs at home is where you start to bring real quality flavors to your table. An herb garden is not a necessity per se, but it really adds a lot of great options to what you can make without heading to the grocery store. Without herbs and spices a lot of great recipes simply bland and boring. So, you should be growing your own herbs, but which ones are the right ones to grow? Which herbs are worth the extra effort and deserve to take up space in your garden? Let’s explore the home chef’s essential herb garden.
Growing Herbs at Home
Not every herb you want to grow at home is going to be easy and a lot of herbs simply can’t be grown. This also counts for spices as you simply will not be able to grow things like black pepper in any reasonable way. With that being said there are plenty of herbs that are very easy to grow at home, super worthwhile, and highly versatile.
The principal idea behind a home herb garden is to replace what you would be buying at the store with something that costs less and is fresher than you would otherwise have access to. This can be tricky, but if done properly is achievable. It is worth noting at this point, the first year you start an herb garden, you’re not going to break even in costs. Homegrown herbs can be cheaper over time, but the initial cost of getting seeds, preparing soil, spending time, or even getting essential gardening tools make your first run at home grown herbs a bit more costly.
So what makes a good herb for your home garden?
Primarily we are looking for herbs that are easy to grow, produce high yields, and have wide harvest times throughout the year. The best home grown herbs can produce year round or even for several years after being planted. On top this we want to choose herbs that are essential to developing flavors we want to use often. This last point is a bit harder for to pin down as it varies by cooking style, so we’ll be focusing on herbs that have broad applications across different types of dishes.
Essential Herbs to Grow at Home
The following are our top picks for herbs that any homesteader should grow at home. Selected for their versatility and ease to grow, these herbs should open the door to brand new kitchen possibilities.
1. Basil
Basil is a must have plant in your herb garden. A core ingredient in Mediterranean and Italian cooking, basil is a simple to grow warm weather annual with a variety of uses. Leaves can be used fresh and dried, but fresh basil leaves will have the widest range of applications. Basil is also the core ingredient in pesto, but if you are planning on making pesto you’ll want to grow a fair few more plants that you would otherwise. In general you’ll want one to two basil plants for each member of the household if you plan on using it throughout the whole year.
Basil is not terribly difficult to grow at home, but it does have some tricks to it. Basil likes moist well drained soil and higher temperatures. Basil is also a lightly greedy plant and does not like to be crowded as it takes a lot from the soil. To get the best leaf production throughout the year you’ll want to water it with a water soluble fertilizer a few times throughout it’s growing season. When basil first gets going you can snip the top most branches off after it’s about 4 to 6 inches tall. This will encourage the basil to grow more side branches and become bushier producing more leaves and wasting less energy on the stems.
2. Rosemary
Rosemary is the plant that keeps on giving. This woody evergreen shrub is also a warm weather plant from the Mediterranean, just like basil. However, unlike basil, rosemary can be grown as a shrub that will produce fresh needles for you year round. Depending on your climate, you may have to bring the plant indoors to keep it alive over the winter, but we’ve had plants last more than 5 years without any problem with the cold, so long as we move them indoors once weather gets into the 40’s.
Rosemary is primarily used paired with meats. Lamb, chicken, and beef all can be paired with rosemary to produce wonderfully flavorful dishes. The herb can be used dried or fresh, crushed or as full sprigs. Rubs and marinades also do well with rosemary and it is perhaps one of the best savory herbs you can grow at home. While the plants long life is a sure benefit, it is also drought tolerant, easy to care for, and does not require special fertilization more than once a year. The plant can grow naturally in very harsh environments so this makes it hard for even the worst home gardeners to kill it accidentally.
3. Thyme
Thyme is another plant of Mediterranean origin that is perfect for any home herb garden. While thyme is an interesting plant with numerous tiny leaves, it has a wide variety of uses and pairs well with meat, seafood, and vegetables. It can be used in sauces, soups, and stews just as easily as it can be applied to roasts and pasta dishes. There are many varieties of Thyme, but most notably there are several that take on citrus flavors and can be used to get out of season flavors quite regularly in your cooking.
Thyme is a great plant for a hot sunny summer, but it can also easily be grown indoors or in a greenhouse year round. It likes a moist well drained high organic content soil, but it can also tolerate drier environments. The plant stores incredibly well, so you can’t really grow to much of it. Thyme can be stored in the refrigerator, freeze, used fresh, dried, or preserved in oil.
4. Sage
Sage is perennial evergreen subshrub, but also has annual varieties. The perennial varieties, including the common sage, need a bit more care their first year of growth, but can provide high yield each following year for the plant’s lifetime. Sage grows broad velvety leaves that produce a peppery savory flavor and are part of Europe’s essential herbs along with rosemary and thyme.
Sage is a cool weather plant, usually being planted in the spring or fall. It enjoys high organic component soils that drain well and should not be over watered.
When used in cooking it adds a lot to savory dishes bringing out earthy but fresh flavors. The leaves are used whole in many meat dishes and are good both fresh and dried. The best way to sum up where sage is best used would be ‘autumn dishes’. The warm earthy flavors of sage make for great cozy meals with a bit more of a developed profile.
5. Mint
Mint comes in many varieties with different types of flavors and intensities. That being said, not matter the variety you choose, mint can find a use in your kitchen. Mint is such a standout flavor that it can be used in both sweet and savory dishes and really packs a punch even when used sparingly. Homegrown mint also makes great teas and drink additions, so you’ll never really have an excuse to not use it.
Mint is preferably used fresh. Of all the herbs we’ve covered so far, mint loses the most flavor when dried, but it is still quite potent even in its dry form. Fresh mint is used heavily in American, British, Indian, and Mediterranean cooking frequently as well as in a variety of other dishes from around the world.
Common mint (spearmint) is a perennial plant that stems from it’s underground rhizome. Because of how it grows it can easily take over a planter or garden if it isn’t watched. We recommend that mint be put in it’s own smaller raised bed or in a planter to confine it’s size. The plant is hard to kill, but sub-optimal conditions can cause the plant to grow smaller leaves that are more spaced out on the stems.
6. Chives
Chives are the herbaceous replacement for green onions. They have an onion like taste, but are more potent and earthy. They’re a perennial plant that is closely related to common onion, but unlike the common onion chives are used for their leaves. They produce numerous tall green leaves that can be trimmed right off the top and the plant will keep growing. Typically chives are a set it and forget it plant as they can weather almost any conditions and grow back from their roots.
Similar to mint, we recommend that you keep an eye on your chives. While they don’t spread as much as mint does, if you forget about chives you planted the previous year and till them into the soil you can end up with chives growing all over the place. Also, since chives are such easy plentiful producers, you can usually get away with growing a single pot of them that you harvest from year round.
Chives are perfect for adding onion like flavors to dishes when you don’t want to use an actual onion. They make for a flavorful topping when used fresh on heavy dairy based dishes. They can also be used dried, in soups and sauces, but you should always have fresh chives on hand due to the plants hardiness.
Essential Herbs Add Flavor to Your Kitchen
The six essential herbs listed here will help add a ton of flavor to any kitchen with minimal effort and high returns. Rosemary, sage, and basil are all widely used and can be transformative depending on the dish you’re adding them to. Chives help you build strong savory flavors with minimal effort. Mint is useful through savory and sweet dishes alike. Thyme is similarly versatile and comes in varieties that can easily augment its use. With just 6 plants you unlock so much potential to grow amazing flavors for your kitchen right at home, and this is only the beginning of what you can do while homesteading.