Perennial herbs are an excellent way to keep up your supply of fresh herbs without having to spend tons of money and time cultivating new plants every season. With proper care and cultivation, these eight hassle-free herbs will flourish for years to come.
Many types of herbs flower for weeks, attracting beneficial pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. In mild regions, you can harvest them most of the year.
Here’s list of some our favorite perennial herbs to plant in your garden.
Basil
Basil is not just a seasoning, it’s a potent home remedy. Drink basil tea to ward off head colds, warts, and worms. The herb also acts as an appetite stimulant, carminative, and diuretic. Add fresh leaves to salads or cook with your favorite meals to improve kidney function, calm down stomach spasms, and promote circulation. Most surprising of all, used by a seasoned professional, it has the ability to treat snake and insect bites.
Additionally, you can rub crushed leaves on your temples to relieve headaches or boil in hot water to make a soothing foot bath.
This sweet-smelling herb should get between 6 to 8 hours of full sun daily and thrives in moist, well-draining soil. Basil should never fully dry out, as this will make the leaves limp and dry. Once your plant flowers, pick them off to prevent the leaves from getting too bitter. If you’re growing it outside, plant 10-12 inches apart and harvest before the first frost of the fall.
Peppermint
Peppermint is wonderfully soothing for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), other digestive problems such as flatulence, nausea, and cramps. Thus, peppermint tea is a great follow-up to a large meal. You can also inhale mint steam to improve a common cold, sinus inflammation or headaches. Alternatively, cure a headache by applying the oil to your temples or soothe sore joints by applying it where you experience pain.
Peppermint is a perennial that loves light soil with good drainage. Place it in indirect sun and top with a bit of organic compost every few months. Water regularly to keep moist. Outside, peppermint can grow up to 4-feet in its first year, so make sure to prune and harvest regularly.
Sage
Sage means “to be in good health” so it’s no surprise that it has plenty of health-promoting effects.
Sage is used as a tonic, digestive, antiseptic, astringent, and antispasmodic agent. It also promoted milk flow treats nervous conditions, trembling, depression, and vertigo dysmenorrhea, diarrhea, gastritis, sore throat, and insect bites. It’s best taken as a tea or chewed raw.
Sage grows well, even into the late fall. Give it plenty of sun and its leaves will reach their peak in flavor. Seeds aren’t straightforward to plant, to grow from cuttings instead. Grow in well-drained, sandy, loamy soil, and if possible, in soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Plant in sage in medium to full sun and do not over-fertilize. Very forgiving, wilted leaves will perk up after a watering.
Lavender
This beautiful purple-flowered plant comes in a large variety of colors: from white, to pale pink or purple or even dark blue or violet. Plus, it has a lovely, soothing fragrance.
Use it in the kitchen, sprinkle in your bathwater, or simply enjoy the smell by growing it at home.
Lavender has proven antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s commonly used for anxiety, depression, agitation, intestinal problems, insomnia, headaches, and pain.
To use, diffuse a few drops of lavender essential oil in water, steep a cup of tea made from the leaves or flowers, or add the oil or flowers to your bath. Drinking the tea and inhaling the steam is best to ease strong emotions or promote calmness while topical application of the oil works best for pain.
Lavender loves to be placed in a warm, sunny spot. The plant is actually quite hardy and even does well in dry, poor soil. However, you should fertilize it with high-quality compost once a year and water when the top 2 inches of soil are dry. Make sure to plant it in a well-draining pot.
Lemon Balm
This herb has soothing effects against stress, anxiety, and insomnia. It’s also a digestive tonic that eases indigestion, gas, bloating, colic, and poor appetite. Plus, some studies suggest it works wonders on cold sores too!
Drink a cup of pure tea, or use it in combination with valerian, chamomile, and hops. Topically, apply some chilled tea to ward off mosquitoes and soothe bug bites.
This herb is a perennial that can grow up to 12-24 inches high, it’s also a very quick-spreading plant. Plant in full-run in a well-drained, sandy soil. It will always do best if planted in cool weather in the early spring or late fall. Water regularly and evenly, keeping the soil slightly moist.
Sorrel
Sorrel is a leafy green vegetable grown for its pleasantly tart, lemon flavor. It sometimes gets classified as an herb and sometimes as a vegetable. Either way, we don’t grow enough of it. Sorrel plants prefer the cool seasons of spring and fall, quickly bolting to seed as the weather heats up. The 2 most commonly grown species are Garden Sorrel (Rumex acestosa) and French Sorrel (Rumex scutatus).
Sorrel plants have smooth, arrow-shaped leaves that grow from a center rosette. The plant will send up a tall flower stalk as the temperature warms. The red flowers are rather insignificant whorled spikes, like rhubarb. Sorrel plants are dioecious.
Sorrel only gets about 12 – 18 inches tall, although the flower stalks will get taller. It does spread out though, easily taking up 2 ft. in width.
