Herb Gardens From Seed

Kitchen Herbs

• Herbs to cook with include cilantro, dill and basil, all easy to grow from seed in full sun. Cilantro grows up to 2 feet high with flavorful leaves to add to salads, salsas and soups and use as garnishes. It grows easily from seed in pots or garden beds. Let cilantro plants flower and produce seed to use in the kitchen as coriander to be crushed and rubbed on meats or added to soups, as well as saving some seeds to plant the following year. Dill is a tall, green feathery-leaved plant that produces umbrella-shaped flowers and seed heads. The leaves are flavorful in salads, soups and chutneys and the seeds are used in pickling. Basil is a sweet, flavorful herb used in salads, pastas, sauces and stuffings and is paired with tomatoes in many recipes. Other kitchen herbs that are easy to grow from seed include sage, thyme and mint.

Medicinal Herbs

• Medicinal herbs to include in herb gardens include rue, chamomile and valerian. Rue is a perennial bitter herb used in eye washes and teas. It is easy to grow from seed and readily reseeds itself, returning each year from newly sprouted seedlings and from roots and crowns of established plants. Chamomile is an annual sweet flowering herb used in teas to aid in digestive problems and sleep. Valerian is a leafy green herb whose thick tap root is used for stress and anxiety relief and as a sleep aid. All require full sun and are interesting herbaceous plants to grow in herb gardens from seed.

Sweet-Smelling Herbs

• Sweet-smelling herbs to grow from seed include lavender, lemon grass and pineapple sage. Lavender is an upright bushy plant grown for its fragrant, sweet-smelling purple flowers. Lemon grass is a leafy green herb with lemon-scented and lemon-flavored foliage. Pineapple sage is a scented sage that smells like sweet pineapple when its leaves are rubbed or crushed. All three herbs grow easily from seed in rich soil with consistent watering. They are used as tea, in personal-care preparations and in cooking. They are easy herbs to plant in herb gardens and flower gardens.

Planting Your Own Herb Garden

• Planting an herb garden can be as simple as growing a variety of herbs together in two or three patio planters or windowsill pots -- or as complex as designing a formal herb garden with brick paths and raised beds sheltered by box, bay or privet hedges. Most herbs require well-drained soil, full sun and consistent watering, making them ideal companion plants for flowers and vegetables. Many herbs tolerate poor soils and some herbs like rosemary need soil mixed with sand or crushed gravel. Herbs sprout easily from seeds and grow well in the garden as well as indoors in pots as long as they get 10 to 12 hours of sunlight daily and regular watering. Inexperienced gardeners who want to grow herbs can easily get started with a couple of packets of seeds of their favorite herbs and two or three medium-sized pots of potting soil. Plant seeds, keep the soil moist and seedlings will soon appear. Herbs benefit from trimming or pinching back, especially potted herbs, encouraging stocky, bushy growth.