When considering which herbal plants you might like to grow, you can easily become overwhelmed by all the options. Here’s a concise list of must have, must grow wellness herbs.
Which are the Must Have Wellness Herbs?
Bear in mind that these conclusions are NOT endorsed by any medical body.
Here is a list of some of my favorite commonly grown wellness herbs, that is herbs that promote balance and health in the body. No herb is a magic pill that will heal everything.
Also, for this list, these are herbs I consider must have, must grow wellness herbs. You will notice that quite a few make themselves useful in the kitchen, too. I concur with Hippocrates, and feel that our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.
–>>>This creation of this list was inspired by our original post, How to Plan and Plant a Wellness Herb Garden.
Read More & Take Notes
Is this list comprehensive? No!! For comprehensive, check out at least five ten books from the library.
I originally started this list with the intent of giving you only five basic, grow-able herbs; as you can see, I can’t count. There are way more than five!
- Included here are the cultural requirements for each herb, and what it’s typically used for. I’ve also included their recommended growing zones.
Here are a Few More Helpful Herbal Resources for Late:
How to Grow Unusual Herbs – Winter Sowing
To get you started planning your herb garden and take some notes about what you’d like to start growing, grab our FREE worksheets below:
Wellness Herbal Terms
You’ll need to know some basic herbal vocabulary as you learn more about wellness herbs. Remember that all herbal actions/uses are only suggestions. Please see a qualified medical professional when necessary.
- Vulnerary – Externally helps the body to heal wounds
- Anti–microbial – helps immune system overcome pathogenic micro-organisms
- Demulcent – Mucilaginous herbs which relax, soothe and protect tissue
- Diaphoretic – Increases perspiration, dilates capillaries
- Carminative – sweet, spicy aroma, promotes expulsion of gas and soothes the stomach
Thanks for the post. These are great recommendations too. I have most of them in the garden or use the ones I don’t (like garlic.) I also used echinacea purpurea as a tea for years with our kids. Only the leaves and flowers though. I used it with a garlic ear oil remedy and it always seem to help them a lot. Well thought out article and references…!
So glad you found it useful! Thank you for the kind words. 🙂
Loved this article and just pinned it! The only thing we don’t grow in our own yard is the Elderberry but we just realized last fall after it was too late to harvest any berries that we were seeing it everywhere out in the woods where we go pick huckleberries. This year we are definitely going to wild harvest elderberries!
How awesome that you live where you can wildcraft both! Where are you?
I’m guessing she is in Montana.
Yes, that’s my friend Annie from her cool blog Montana Solar Creations. I was just wondering where in Montana she was foraging. 🙂
I’ve been looking for a website such as yours for a long time. I am getting a few (2-10) acres this year and plan to have an herb garden or two. [one for the kitchen, and one for medicinal purposes.] And I need to study up on medincal herbs and their uses. Thank you.
Two – ten acres is a perfect amount, in my opinion. I think three is about all I can handle with so many little kiddos. Where are you looking to buy? Keep us posted on where you settle and how it goes!
I really enjoyed reading your post, and I’m sure I’ll refer to it often! I’m slowly incorporating a variety of flowers and herbs each year to my medicinal collection. Last year I planted a mint garden, containing three different types of mint. Of my collection, so far my favorites include Calendula and Lemon Balm, though the new one, Borage, I’m adding this year may quickly become a most loved.
Borage is one of my most favorite flowering herbs! It’s so lovely and my goats find it quite tasty. I hope you enjoy it!
This is the perfect list! I agree completely. Thanks for sharing on Natural Living Monday!
Great post, hope you don’t mind…I pinned it. :O)
Love that you pinned it! Let me know what I missed and how it goes for you…
what book would you recommend for someone just start out. I grow
rosemary, basil, and oregano.
I like the Lesley Bremness book The Complete Book of Herbs because its simple, lovely and very comprehensive for a book that’s not too unwieldy and long. Anything Rosemary Gladstar wrote is worth owning but they don’t have a ton of growing info in them. I really suggest going to the library and checking out every herb book you see and then finding one that speaks to your level of experience and your interest. I love the library for vetting books!!!
Do you grow all of these? That is amazing. Then harvesting and using must be time consuming and incredibly rewarding. I love the definitions you shared. I have been working on terminology and I love these. Thanks so much for sharing on Oil me up Wednesdays@ My lamp is full.
Janine
Some years the peppers don’t take or the basil floods out or the chamomile burns up. That’s a garden, herb or otherwise. It is a huge amount of work taken all in all but its worth it to know I have medicine for my family. Thanks for hosting!
Thanks for sharing your post at the HomeAcre Hop!
I would love a herb garden. I have started planting some in pots in the windows. Hopefully a herb garden someday 🙂
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Wow! Looks like there’s some great information here, bookmarking this page to read later!
Nice post, lots of good information on herb growing and usage.
One of my goals for our new farm is to have a medical herb garden. LOVE this post. Pinned. Thank you for putting this list together!
Oooh, Lee – let us know how it goes! I love herb gardens under construction – everything is such an intriguing surprise!
I understand Sambucus leaves contain cyanogenic glycosides which are considered poisonous?
Thank you for noting that, Mia! Not all herbal treatments are ingested, but it’s good to be aware of the properties of each plants. You can read this really cool e-publication from The Herb Society of America on Elder – especially interesting is the ethnobotanical section (how the Native Americans used elder).
Wonderful post! Can you plant your top herbs 🌿 you listed above all together in one bed about 4′ x 8′ ?
You could probably fit everything except the elderberry which can reach five feet wide and tall – or bigger! Also, unless you’re planting only a few garlic bulbs, you really could plant an entire bed (or more) that size in just garlic. It all depends on how much garlic you want to grow – it stays in the garden nearly a full year, so it’s there taking up space that long.
One other thing to consider is that mint of any kind is an aggressive spreader in most climates. You might want to give it its own corner of the yard if you have enough space and/or grow it in pots. All the others should do wonderfully well – good luck!
Love learning about herbs. I usually dehyrate a lot of my herbs for the winter, but this year I decided to bring 3 parsley plants into the greenhouse along with the Rosemary which always gets dug up and replanted in the Spring. I have a pretty good sized herb garden with Sage, Basil, Oregano, Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Echinachea, Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Mint, etc. One of my favorites is Tarragon. I hardly ever use it to cook with but love to just pluck off some leaves and eat it as is. I LOVE it’s taste. I would love to start some Mullein. We had it growing wild here, but I think my husband mowed a lot of it down at the wrong time not knowing what it was. I never thought of growing Cayenne. I got some seeds. Might help the old arthritis! A whole bed of garlic is planted in the fall. I dehydrate and freeze it also. There is hardly a day goes by that I don’t use garlic and onions. The one thing I have problems growing is lavender. I’m thinking maybe It’s too hot and sunny where I’ve been puting it, so I’ll try again in a shadier spot. When I take the dogs for a walk in the summer, I’m constantly “eating” as we walk. I munch on Red & White clover, Cleavers, violet leaves, etc. – even sometimes a couple of young milkweed leaves. I leave those for the Monarch caterpillars. We (dgos love them too) feast on Mulberries, raspberries and blackberries which grow wild here. I’d love to juice the wild Elderberries, but the birds always seem to beat me to them. Last year I planted borage for the first time and plan on trying Marshmallow and some other new herbs that I’ve not tried before. Yarrow I tried, but again it never came back, so I’m thinking I had it planted in the wrong place. To put it simply: Herbs are fascinating!
Yes, I agree! It sounds like you have a lovely mix of herbs. I feel the same way about tarragon – that and savory. And lavender. Ha! I love them all.
Lavender needs lots of drainage and doesn’t usually mind heat but was it wilting where you had it? Maybe it had too much drainage?
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing!