Herb Garden Plants – Growing and Using Your Annual, Perennial and Biennial Herbs



Like all our favorite plants in the garden or in pots indoors, herb garden plants are either “annuals”, “perennials” or “biennials”.

  • An “annual herb” is an herb that grows from seed, sprouts, and flowers and dies in a single season.
  • A “perennial herb” is an herb that lives and blooms year after year.
  • A “biennial herb” is one that takes two full years to complete it’s growth and flowering before dying .

For specific herbs and how they are classified, I invite you to sign up for my free mini-course. For this article, I’ll concentrate on giving you a basic understanding of herb garden plants and their many, many beneficial uses.

Annual Herbs: Start Herb Garden Plants After Jack Frost’s Last Visit

For those of you (like me) who live in an area with four full seasons, you know that we are ever watchful for the first frost and the last frost of the season. Annual herbs, that only live for one growing season, will not survive in winter or even the chance of an overnight frost. Some of our favorite annual herb garden plants include:

  • basil
  • cilantro
  • and summer savory

For our annuals we will need to plant the herbs from a seed or transplant a young plant every year, after any threat of frost.  I like to plant my annuals in a separate “kitchen garden” with our vegetables or growing herbs in pots indoors is ideal for use in our cooking. After the growing season, the earth is replaced or turned (in the garden) and we begin again the next spring.

Perennial Herbs: Here to Stay

When we are designing a garden that will be a permanent feature of our yards, we may want to plant perennial herbs that won’t need to be dug out every fall. This will save you from disturbing your other shrubs, shoots and root systems in your garden as they all grow and mature year after year.  Perennial herbs like:

  • winter savory
  • sage

are fine for the cold temperatures of winter and make lovely (and useful!) members of your perennial gardens.

Biennial herbs: Plant Me Directly Outside But I Can Only Stay for a While.

Biennial herb garden plants spend the first year of their lives sprouting and forming their leaves. They flower in their second year of life, then “go to seed.” and die.

I have created a border garden just for my biennial herbs, alongside a path through my property. I rotate the sowing of my biennial herb seeds so there are always mature herbs when I need to harvest some growth.

Some of our favorite biennial herbs include:

  • parsley
  • angelica
  • caraway

These biennial herb garden plants should not be started in a pot or container and then transplanted. They need to be planted directly into the garden in late spring.

Preparing the Soil: How to Plant Herb Garden Plants:

When soil is first turned, it is often in clumps and stuck together due to moisture and fine roots and clay content. What we want to do is break up the clumps and rake it with a stiff rake until we create a finer texture that will fall between your fingers.

We’re ready to wet the soil lightly, and plant our herb seeds. Our herb garden seeds want to be planted shallow. Pat the soil over the seeds to make the soil firmer. Make sure you water the soil regularly with a light spray to help the herb seeds germinate.

The Herbs Under Your Nose in Your Spice Rack, But Why You Should Really Be Growing Fresh Herbs

Many of you tell me, “I don’t know a thing about herbs.” Of course you do! You are using them all the time. The little dried flakes you are buying may not look like herbs, but they began their journey in a garden before they ended up in your sauces, garnishes and potpourri.

The herbs in your kitchen, are known as Culinary Herbs and I know you love them. But wait until you taste them when they are fresh from your indoor or outdoor herb garden.

Here are just some of the Culinary Herb Garden Plants you can look forward to:

  • basil
  • thyme
  • summer savory
  • chives
  • marjoram
  • parsley

Aromatic Herbs

Aromatic herbs can be cut and dried to make amazing and very long lasting potpourri. Aromatic herbs are known for their pleasing and calming scents. Why would we want to spray chemical air fresheners when we have herbs like lavender, rosemary, lemon verbena, mint and lavage?

Medicinal Herbs: An Basic Overview. More Information in the Free Mini-Course >>>>

As you can guess, Medicinal Herbs are herbs used in the treatment, easing and curing of injury and disease. Plants and herbs are present in many of the most high tech and modern medicines. And there are new uses being discovered everyday.

But it’s with a word of caution I tell you this. Just because a medicine has the word “herbal” in it, does not make it automatically safe to put in your body. So please be careful to not be fooled by the newest “herbal supplement” or “herbal cure.” It is always best to research any kind of medicine. You only have one body, so don’t experiment on it. Instead, you should sign up for my free mini-course for much more information about exciting uses of medicinal and curing herbs.

Enough With the Herb Categories. Many Herbs Have Multiple Uses.

I find many of the herb garden plants we have growing on our property are just as beautiful as my so called “ornamental” shrubs and flowering plants. The herb, Borage, rivals any of my most lovely flowering shrubs with its amazing blue blooms. Chicory is another of my favorite “blues” in the garden.

Drying your herbs is something we go into some detail on this site. Picking, drying and tying an herb bouquet is a thing of beauty and the scent lasts for ages! I’m sorry, but my house is the best smelling house in the neighborhood. And the smells (and the memories) these scents create, are real. No fake chemical scents are necessary.

*(Speaking of harmful chemicals, what about pesticides? Did you know that many herb garden plants keep your garden naturally pest free? No chemicals necessary. It’s true. This is something our grand parents and great grand parents knew. Mint is a good example.)

Some of the other herbs we use for dry bouquets and potpourri are:

  • Mint
  • Valerian
  • Echinacea

So whether we’re cooking, making herbal tea, herbal soaps, herbal bouquets and potpourri, you can see that the uses for herb garden plants are almost endless.

Make sure to sign up for my free mini-course and for those of you who purchase my book, I’m going to throw in a free bonus book about easy ways to make money with herbs.

Until then, I’ll see you on the next page >>>>>>>>>>>>>