Announcing Our New Guide to Herbs

With spring under way, we’re excited to announce that our family of Garden Design 101 guides is expanding this week—with our new Herbs 101 guide.

Whether you’re designing a new herb garden, choosing seedlings for a kitchen container garden, or trying to decide which variety of basil or thyme to tuck into a corner of a window box, start with Herbs 101.

One-stop research: Our field guide to Herbs 101 pulls together all our field guides on culinary, medicinal, and aromatic plants. You’ll also find our most popular posts about herbs, including Calendula, Chamomile, Dill, Basil, and of course our old friend Parsley.

If you’re already beyond the beginner’s stage of growing herbs, see more ideas at How to Clone Herbs, 5 Ways to Make Fresh Herbs Last Longer, and Seed Collections for the Adventurous.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll find in our Herbs 101 guide.

Calendula

Calendula oil has healing properties (it soothes minor burns including sunburn). See more in Calendula: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design.

Dill

Where would a guide to herbs be without recipes? One of our favorites ways to use dill in the kitchen is in Quick Pickled Dilly Beans.

Herb Garden Design

Whatever style herb garden you’d like to have—from a medieval knot garden to a raised-bed kitchen garden to a colonial-grid layout—we’ve got you covered. See more in Everything You Need to Know About Herb Gardens.

Lavender

With nearly 40 species in the lavender family, the hardest part may be choosing which to grow. Beware: Not all varieties of this Mediterranean perennial flowering herb are equally hardy (lavenders prefer warm, dry climates). Keep in mind that English lavender (L. angustifolia) hates humidity; Lavandin (L. x intermedia ‘Grosso’) is highly fragrant; and bunny-eared Spanish lavender (L. stoechas) blooms in spring. See more in Lavenders: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design.

Thyme

Know your thymes: Not all varieties belong in the kitchen. (Some are best underfoot, grown as ground covers.) Thymus vulgaris—French or common thyme—is the most popular culinary cultivar. See more in Thyme: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design.

Shade Tolerant Herbs

Rosemary

Aromatic? Check. Edible? Check? Attractive hedging plant? Check. What more could you want from a perennial herb? If you live in a warm climate, rosemary does it all. See more in Rosemary: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design.

Our curated Herbs 101 guide also covers Borage, Mint, Sage, and more. We’ll be adding new herbs every week. If there’s an herb you’d particularly like us to add to our guides, please let us know in the comments section.

Don’t miss our other curated Garden Design 101 guides to plants, including Annuals, Perennials, Ground Covers, Shrubs, Trees, and Houseplants.