Herb Plants for a Bountiful Kitchen Garden

Planting herb plants for your own kitchen garden is one of the most rewarding projects that a home gardener who loves to cook can undertake. Kitchen gardens are typically planted with culinary herb plants and often-used, easy-to-grow vegetables like onions and carrots.

There's nothing like stepping outside the back door while you're preparing a meal and harvesting fresh herbs and vegetables to use minutes after harvest. Fresh food just tastes better than grocery store produce.

Kitchen Garden Herb Plants

A typical kitchen garden for cooking should include the following herb plants: Basil - basil is a tender annual herb plant, which means it must be replanted every year, and it will not stand up to a frost or freezing weather. It can be grown with dark green leaves, purple leaves, or variegated leaves. Basil is eaten raw or cooked. Its most famous pairing is with tomatoes, served raw on tomato slices or cooked in tomato-based sauces.

Oregano: Oregano is a perennial herb plant, which means it may appear to die down during a harsh winter, but its roots are alive underground, and it will live from season to season without replanting. Oregano is a mild, flavorful herb commonly used in Italian and Mexican cooking.

Cilantro/coriander: Cilantro is two herb plants in one. Its flat, spicy leaves are used to season Thai food and Mexican dishes. Grown to maturity, its flower seeds are known as coriander, which is ground like a peppercorn and used in soups, sauces, stews, and omelets.

Sage: Sage is a perennial herb plant, prized for its beautiful silvery leaves, which keep their form over winter in most U.S. climate regions. Sage is best known as the Thanksgiving seasoning that gives turkey dressing its savory flavor. It is also used to prepare meat and poultry dishes.

Thyme: Thyme is another perennial herb plant. Its tiny leaves and compact growth habit make it suitable for planting along the edges of paved paths or in between pavers or stepping stones. Thyme has a mellow, sweet flavor that enhances the flavor of vegetables and rice or pasta dishes. It is also delicious brewed in a mild herbal tea.

Herb Plant Care

Herbs are easy to grow. Perennial herb plants need full sun and little water. Annuals like basil should be grown where you can easily reach them with water, but your sage, oregano, and thyme plants will survive in most U.S. climate regions without pampering.