If you are baking bread or making quiche using your own fresh herbs from your herb garden, you already must feel like Martha Stewart. But let's take it one step further with some seriously useful home gardening tips. What herbs can be planted together?
Whether you've got an impressive vegetable garden out back or just an impressive sunny windowsill, it's so easy to grow culinary herbs. Planting fresh herbs can also act as a good companion for your vegetable garden. Many help to fight off garden pests. While the garden may be peaceful to look at for us, there is a 24/7 battle going on in your garden bed.
With so many different herbs to choose from, let's start with the basics of how to plant your own herbs for the best results.
Herbs Fall Into Four Different Groups
Mediterranean Herbs
The herbs that come from the Mediterranean region need direct sunlight and dry soil. Plant a terracotta planter with any combo of rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, lavender, and thyme.
Moisture-Loving Herbs
These herbs need full sun and moist soil to grow their herby best. They will play nicely together in your garden bed or on that sunny windowsill with your ceramic turtle collection.
Basil, cilantro, tarragon, and parsley are all part of the moisture-loving herbs and love to be planted together. Garnish time!
Mints
Herbs in the mint family grow sideways and wherever they want. They need their space (much like that ex-boyfriend) and do best outside in the garden or in a very long window box instead of a pot.
Peppermint, lemon balm, catmint, orange mint, and spearmint should stay planted with all their minty friends so their strong perfume doesn't impart onto other non-minty herbs. A bonus of growing these herbs in your garden is that if you plant mint near your vegetables, many garden pests like are chased away by their scent.
Lemon-Scented Herbs
Lemon-scented herbs like lemon verbena and lemon thyme, do well when grown together. The lemon verbena will outsize the lemon thyme eventually but they actually make a great team in close quarters. #TinyHomeGoals
So What Herbs Can Be Planted Together?
1. Lavender
Lavender is a perennial herb that needs full sun and dry soil. Plant it with the Mediterranean group. Just like grandma's lavender sachet, it's a natural repellant of moths and slugs. Lavender also attracts pollinators to your vegetable patches and fruit trees. Lavender and roses grow together well too. Crabtree & Evelyn, lookout.
2. Sage
Plant sage with rosemary, oregano, thyme, lavender, and marjoram. But NOT basil.
Sage loves full sun and well-drained soil. Sage and rosemary are especially good together. Sounds like a 1970's folk duo.
Plant sage with carrots, strawberries, and tomatoes. Garden pests, like the terrifying-sounding cabbage moth and carrot fly, stay away from sage.
3. Parsley
Parsley thrives on moisture and plenty of full sun. Plant parsley with basil, cilantro, and tarragon. When it comes to vegetables, it gets on well with chives, carrots, corn, sweet peppers, tomatoes, onions, and peas.
Parsley flowers attract hoverflies, which eat harmful insects, like aphids. Parsley is more than just a garnish, people.
4. Chamomile
Plant this anti-fungal herb with rosemary, tarragon, marjoram, verbena, basil. Chamomile honestly plays well with everything. It's the Switzerland of the companion planting world.
5. Oregano
Plant oregano with rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, and marjoram. Like chamomile, oregano is also a good planting buddy to all the culinary herbs.
6. Thyme
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Thyme is a perennial herb and grows well with the rest all of the Mediterranean herbs. Plant it with rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, and lavender. It the garden it gets along well with cabbage, eggplant, potatoes, and strawberries.
Thyme chases away cabbage worms, corn earworms, tomato hornworms, and flea beetles. Why are their names so scary!? But on the bright side, thyme attracts honeybees, making thyme a popular herb to grow in a beekeeper's garden.
7. Rosemary
Rosemary doesn't get along well with most other herbs. It does best when kept with the other herbs from just the Mediterranean group.
8. Cilantro
Cilantro grows well with basil, dill, parsley, and tarragon. Never plant cilantro with fennel though. Actually, just plant fennel alone as a rule.
Cilantro attracts beneficial insects into your garden but scares away aphids, potato beetles, and spider mites.
9. Dill
Beneficial insects, like honey bees, butterflies, wasps, ladybugs, praying mantises, and hoverflies, are fans of dill. Dill is a friendly herb that grows well with tarragon, parsley, cilantro, basil, and chives.
10. Chives
In addition to on top of your baked potato, chives are happiest planted with dill, parsley, marjoram, and tarragon.
Watch: Wild Edible Weeds in Your Backyard
