20 Medicinal Herbs to Grow in Your Healing Garden (Make Your Own Herbal Remedies with Plants You Grow!)
Have you ever wondered which medicinal herbs are the best ones to start growing in your healing garden, but felt overwhelmed and just didn’t know where to begin? There are SO many great herbs with useful properties that you can grow to create your own medicinal herb garden.
I’m sharing my favorite 20 best herbs you should grow in your own healing garden and how to grow and use your medicinal herbs.
But I have to tell you-— I had a REALLY hard time narrowing my list down to just 20. I left out Goldenseal, Juniper, Arnica, Turmeric, and many more that could have and should have made it to this list. But if I had included them all-—well, this would have been a BOOK!
The way I ended up narrowing this list down was based on:
1) how easy the herbs are to grow,
2) how easy they are to forage or purchase and still have quality, and
3) their overall usefulness for multiple issues.
**If an herb can only be useful for one single thing, then you need to consider if it’s worth taking up precious real estate in your medicinal garden….unless you have unlimited space of course! In that case, grow them ALL! :-)
The herbs below are medicinal plants I use ALL the time for various natural remedies, I can grow most of them, even in my harsh climate, and the rest I can easily purchase if need be.
This way, you can still access the herbs even if you live in a difficult zone. If you are fortunate to live in a great gardening area, then these herbs should be no problem at all for you to start out with in your own garden.
And if you’d like a great reference book that’s fun to read, informative, and comprehensive, I suggest Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide. It was the first herbal book I ever read, many many years ago, and I refer to it still with enjoyment and gratitude for her knowledge in using and growing medicinal plants.
*SNIP*
Calendula
Cayenne
Chamomile
Chickweed
Dandelion
Feverfew
Garlic
Ginger
Lavender
Lemon Balm
Marshmallow
Mullein
Oregano
Peppermint
Plantain
Rosemary
St. John’s Wort
Thyme
Valerian
Yarrow
Many of those listed are perennials even in our climate.
The ones I see right off are:
Lavender, mint, oregano, thyme, and yarrow.
Garlic I plant every year anyways.
And some of those herbs are used in cooking as well so worth growing cause you can get double duty out of them.
Among the foraged plants I use for herbal teas, I use goldenrod and pineapple weed the most.
folks in my neck of the woods are becoming disenchanted with conventional medicine and returning to herbs
I plant many of these in my yard in the Pacific Northwest. Lavender, rosemary, thyme, and even oregano shape into lovely evergreen shrubs. Yarrow, calendula and lemon balm spread like crazy if I let the flowers go to seed, so they are more work. Mint…only in pot! Garlic I plant in October. I’ve got 6-inch shoots right now. They lay dormant all winter then grow when it warms up. I harvest in June.
I see marshmallow is on that list. It’s pretty finicky about growing conditions, but there are other mallows with the same medicinal properties that are easier to grow. Last fall I saw my planting of High Mallow finally took hold: https://strictlymedicinalseeds.com/product/mallow-high-malva-sylvestris-packet-of-50-seeds-organic/
(The resource area is posted at the end of the the July 3-6 Gardening Thread beginning after post 112!) https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4022311/posts
I already have Dandelion and Plantain growing wild, only 18 to go. ;-)
