🌱 Growing Guide
10 Herbs Every Beginner Should Grow
Skip the overwhelm. These forgiving, useful herbs will have you harvesting in weeks — whether you've got a full backyard or just a sunny windowsill.
📅 March 25, 2026
🕐 6 min read
✍️ Pickle Patch Co.
🏷️ Beginner · Growing
Everyone tells you to "just start an herb garden." What they don't always tell you is which herbs to start with.
Plant the wrong thing and you'll spend all summer fighting something that refuses to grow — or watching something spread
until it takes over your entire yard (looking at you, mint).
These 10 herbs are chosen for one reason: they're forgiving. They tolerate a bit of neglect, they're useful in the kitchen
and the medicine cabinet, and they'll actually make you feel good about gardening instead of defeated.
Whether you're working with a backyard, a raised bed, or a row of pots on a fire escape — this list works.
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Get the free Herb Cheat Sheet →
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The 10 Herbs
01
🌿
Basil
Easy
Uses:Cooking, pesto, Caprese, infused oils
Sunlight:Full sun (6+ hours)
Water:Regular, keep moist but not soggy
Tip: Pinch the flower buds off the moment you see them. Flowering makes the leaves bitter — ruthless pinching = more basil all season.
02
🪴
Mint
Easy
Uses:Tea, digestive aid, mojitos, pest repellent
Sunlight:Partial to full sun
Water:Consistent moisture
Tip: Grow mint in a container or it will take over. Seriously. It's delicious, it's useful, and it has zero respect for boundaries.
03
🌱
Chives
Easy
Uses:Garnish, salads, eggs, mild onion flavor
Sunlight:Full sun to partial shade
Water:Moderate, drought tolerant once established
Tip: Chives come back every year and get bigger. Snip them from the top and they'll keep growing all season. The purple flowers are edible too.
04
🌾
Thyme
Easy
Uses:Cooking, cold & cough remedies, antiseptic
Sunlight:Full sun
Water:Low, drought tolerant — do NOT overwater
Tip: Thyme hates wet feet. Plant it in well-draining soil and mostly ignore it — it thrives on neglect. One of the best herbs to grow between paving stones.
05
🫙
Rosemary
Medium
Uses:Cooking, memory support, hair rinse, infused oil
Sunlight:Full sun
Water:Low, very drought tolerant once established
Tip: Rosemary is slow to start but lives for years. In colder climates, bring it indoors in winter. Once established, it's nearly indestructible.
06
🌼
Chamomile
Easy
Uses:Sleep tea, skin soothing, anxiety relief, facial steam
Sunlight:Full sun to light shade
Water:Moderate, tolerates dry spells
Tip: German chamomile self-seeds prolifically — let some flower heads drop at the end of season and you'll have chamomile forever. Harvest flowers when the petals start to bend back.
07
🌿
Lemon Balm
Easy
Uses:Stress relief tea, lip balm, lemon flavor in cooking
Sunlight:Full sun to partial shade
Water:Moderate, tolerates poor soil
Tip: Like mint, lemon balm spreads enthusiastically. Contain it or let it roam in a dedicated bed. Rub a fresh leaf between your fingers — the lemon scent is instant mood repair.
08
🌻
Calendula
Easy
Uses:Skin salves, wound healing, edible petals, dye
Sunlight:Full sun
Water:Moderate, tolerates poor soil
Tip: The more you harvest calendula, the more it blooms. Deadhead constantly and it'll flower from late spring through frost. Orange petals make a gorgeous salve base.
09
💜
Lavender
Medium
Uses:Sleep sachets, calming tea, baking, bath products
Sunlight:Full sun
Water:Low once established, hates clay soil
Tip: Lavender needs excellent drainage — it'll rot in soggy soil. Grow in a raised bed or add grit to your planting hole. Harvest stems before flowers fully open for the strongest scent.
10
🌿
Sage
Easy
Uses:Cooking, sore throat gargle, memory support, smudging
Sunlight:Full sun
Water:Low to moderate, excellent drainage
Tip: Sage is a perennial in most climates — plant it once and it'll come back bigger every year. Harvest heavily in summer; pull back in fall so new growth can harden off before winter.
Where to Start
If the list feels overwhelming, start with three: basil, chives, and chamomile. They cover cooking, garnishing,
and calming tea — and none of them will make you feel like you're failing. Add more as your confidence builds.
Most of these can be grown from seed (cheap, satisfying) or from transplants (faster, more forgiving).
If it's already late in your growing season, grab transplants from a local nursery. No judgment.
A Note on Planning
Most beginner herb gardens fail not because of the plants — but because there's no plan. You plant things randomly,
forget what you put where, harvest too aggressively in the first season, and then wonder why it all looked dead by August.
A simple planning sheet changes everything. Knowing your planting dates, companion plants, and harvest schedule means
you actually use what you grow instead of watching it bolt and go to seed.
Plan Your Herb Garden Properly 🌿
Our Printable Herb Garden Planner includes 12 monthly pages, companion planting charts,
a seed inventory tracker, and a growing guide for 20 herbs. Plan once, grow all season.
Once They're Growing…
Growing herbs is the easy part. The real magic happens when you learn what to do with them.
These same 10 herbs are the foundation of a proper home apothecary — and you don't need a cabinet full of supplements
or a fancy setup to get started.
Read our guide on how to start a home apothecary in 5 steps →
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