Herbs to Plant in the Fall

If you are looking for ways to increase your health, season food, and provide some amazing holiday-inspired recipes, herbs are a great place to start. While herbs are usually grown in the springtime after the final frost, there are some that you can grow in the fall.

The Benefits of Growing Your Own Herbs

Why should you grow them yourself? While there is always the option of purchasing fresh or dried herbs at your local grocery store or farmer’s market, there are also some amazing benefits of having them at home. With your own herbs, you can:

Have the convenience of picking the herbs for each dish without going to the store.
You always have fresh herbs and don’t have to rely on the dried herbs in jars.
You can use the herbs for cooking and holistic remedies.
It gives you more to choose from, with a lot of variety and versatility.

This report is going to provide you with a list of 6 different herbs that can be grown in the fall, including:

Rosemary
Sage
Lavender
Thyme
Mint
Chives

Keep reading to learn more about these herbs, how to grow them, ways to use them, and of course all the health benefits of using them.

Rosemary

Who doesn’t love rosemary? This is definitely one of the more popular herbs, and luckily it can also be planted in the fall. Of course, like all herbs on this list, you need to consider your climate during this season.

While many people have no problems growing rosemary in colder conditions, you might live in an extremely cold climate, where it might not be suitable for fall growing.

Rosemary is a type of perennial herb that isn’t too difficult to grow under the right circumstances. It produces flowers of varying shades like blue, pink, and purple, where the leaves themselves are most often used for seasoning and for a variety of medicinal purposes. It is a really good healing plant to have around.

Why You Should Grow Rosemary

First, let’s go over some of the health benefits of rosemary, as that will help you decide if you want to learn more about growing this herb. Here are some of the top health benefits of rosemary, both in consuming it and using it for medicinal applications:

It helps to improve your memory – An excellent medicinal use for rosemary is with your brain and memory health. The natural properties in this herb can actually stimulate your cognitive function, which helps to improve your focus, help with overall brain health, and improve how well you retain memories. It is an excellent way to work on preventing memory-related diseases like Alzheimer’s.
You can relieve stress and anxiety – Rosemary doesn’t just help with physical health, but mental and emotional health as well. It has soothing effects, which are great for reducing your stress naturally. Stress can affect just about every facet of your life, so it is important to find as many different ways to relieve it as possible. It can also help with anxiety and mood changes as a result of the stress, anxiety, or hormonal imbalances.
It helps with pain relief – Rosemary has also been used for different types of physical pain, from stomach pain like constipation and abdominal discomfort, to relieving headaches and reducing inflammation that causes joint pain.

Rosemary is good for your immune system – A great thing about many of these herbs, including rosemary, is that they can help to boost your immune system naturally. There are antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds in the rosemary herb that help to protect your immune system and help your body fight off infections and diseases.

Ways to Use Rosemary

Still undecided about whether or not you should grow rosemary? There are actually a lot of different uses and benefits for this amazing herb.

You can apply rosemary to your wounds, burns, and scrapes as a topical application.
Rosemary works great when cooking with it, including adding it to tea for pain relief.
You can use rosemary oil to help with joint pain by rubbing it on the joints.
It is an excellent herb for seasoning different types of foods.

Tips for Growing Rosemary

So what about planting rosemary in the fall? If you are new to growing herbs, you don’t have to be worry about most of the ones on this list. Most herbs do tend to be beginner-friendly. With rosemary, the most important things to focus on are placement, providing a good soil, and making sure you have adequate drainage.

You want your rosemary to have at least 6 hours of sunlight during the day, so it does better outdoors or on the patio, as opposed to growing it in your kitchen. Rosemary dries out quickly, so check it often and water it as soon as you notice it visibly dry.

Sage

The next herb that is ideal to plant during the fall season is sage. With this herb, try to plant it as early in the fall as you can so that it doesn’t get stuck trying to grow in a harsh cold climate. Sage is a delicious herb that is really easy to use for all your culinary masterpieces. It is in the mint family, similar to basil, rosemary, oregano, and thyme.

When you get a sage plant, you will notice that it has leaves that are a green-gray color, which are edible. The leaves are the part of this plant to be used as herbs for health purposes and consumption. Here are some health benefits, ways to use sage, and of course some planting and growing tips.

Why You Should Grow Sage

You may be wondering why you would want to add sage to your fall herbs. First of all, you can of course use it to cook with. For cooking, sage is often used with meat and sausage, but can also be used to add flavor to salads.

However, it is the health benefits you should really pay attention to. These are some of the top health benefits of having sage:

It strengthens your immune system – Even if you don’t get ill often, it is always a good thing when you can boost your immune system. Building up immunities means that if you come in contact with bacteria, germs, or a virus, you are less susceptible to catching that virus. Immune system boosting can also help protect your skin from various infections. You can actually use a tincture of sage to be applied to the skin on a cut or scrape in order to prevent it from becoming infected.
You can build stronger bones – Another health benefit you get from sage is to get stronger bones and protect your bone density as you age. This is a benefit you get by adding sage to your meals when cooking. Sage has vitamin K, which is an important nutrient for keeping your bone density. It can help you prevent conditions like osteoporosis. While sage won’t provide all the vitamin K you need, it definitely helps.
Sage is great for brain health – If you have trouble focusing and concentration, you might be in need of improving your brain health and cognitive function. Sage can also help with your cognitive abilities, from increasing your ability to concentrate, to improving your memory retention.
You can naturally reduce inflammation – Inflammation in the body and the skin can be very uncomfortable and often painful. It is associated with respiratory problems, gastrointestinal pain, and of course conditions like arthritis. If you have chronic pain, reducing inflammation is the first step to treating it, which you can get naturally by introducing more sage into your diet.

Ways to Use Sage

Sage has two main purposes: cooking with it and using it for holistic health purposes. Here are some different options to use your sage if you decide to grow it:

Start cooking with your sage by adding it to soups, salads, and meats.
Apply crushed sage herb to wounds, skin rashes, and sprains to reduce inflammation and prevent infection.
Make a sage tincture with sage and oils to heal everything from sore throats to decreasing hair loss.

Tips for Growing Sage

If you have decided to grow sage in your backyard, it is best that you start with cuttings from a sage plant. If you are planting it in the fall, make sure it is at least 2 weeks before the winter frost. If you are in a colder climate, this means as early in the fall season as possible.

You want soil to be around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and to have good drainage. Make sure your sage is not planted near cucumbers.

Water your sage frequently when you first plant it, making sure it does not dry out. Sage is a perennial so it will keep returning year after year. Every spring, you want to prune the heavier stems to keep it healthy.

Lavender

Who doesn’t love lavender?! This might not be commonly associated with fall herbs and flavors, but lavender is easy to grow in the fall and can withstand slightly cooler temperatures. There are so many wonderful uses for lavender, that you should definitely try growing it if you can.

You do need a good amount of sunshine for lavender, preferably direct sunlight, though it can handle the cooler temperatures of fall. Lavender has a pretty, feminine scent, but is also soothing and can be used for a lot of mental and physical health benefits.

It dates back to ancient times when people would luxuriate in baths with lavender herbs. Lavender is also great at repelling insects in your garden.

Why You Should Grow Lavender

Lavender is a very versatile herb that can definitely be used for cooking and flavoring drinks, but it is the extensive list of health benefits that make it one of the top herbs you can grow in your garden. Here are some different ways you can benefit by having fresh lavender at your disposal:

It helps with skin conditions – Your skin will love crushed lavender or a lavender tincture. With fresh lavender, you can apply it to your skin to help with minor scrapes or burns on the skin, or use it for skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.
You can relieve mental distress – Lavender also happens to be amazing at helping with your mental and emotional health. It is often used for stress, anxiety, and even depression. Lavender has the ability to calm your nerves and relax you, which helps with everything from emotional stress to reducing anxiety and helping treat your panic attacks more naturally.
Lavender reduces chronic pain – There are some types of chronic pain that can be relieved with the help of lavender, including headaches and migraines. Lavender not only relaxes the mind, but can relax the body as well. You can use your fresh lavender for your headaches by adding it to your pillow or making a DIY headwrap.
It helps provide more antioxidants – The antioxidants in lavender aren’t necessarily used for boosting your immune system like other herbs, but instead are ideal for your skin. They can help slow down the aging process when you use lavender on your skin regularly.
You can sleep better – Don’t forget to use lavender for insomnia! Using lavender herbs or the essential oils are wonderful for promoting better sleep by relaxing your mind and your body.

Ways to Use Lavender

The way you choose to use your lavender herbs depends largely on what you want to use it for. Here are some different options available:

Make your own potpourri with the dried lavender flowers, adding it to sachets and pillows.
Create a lavender tincture with the herbs and natural oils to apply to your skin for anti-aging and help with various skin conditions.
Treat wounds, cuts, and burns with lavender.
Add lavender to a pitcher of water to consume and get multiple health benefits.
reate DIY products like lavender soap and bath bombs.

Tips for Growing Lavender

If you want to grow lavender in your garden, look for the sunniest area in your yard. Even in the fall, you should still get a good amount of sunshine during the day. You want your soil to have good drainage and be slightly sweet. With lavender, you should get an established plant instead of trying to germinate it from the seed.

Lavender is good to harvest when the flowers are almost fully open, but not quite. This allows it to stay fragrant and have lasting effects. If you are making herbed sachets or similar products, you can remove the flowers and the stems to be used for them. The same goes for lavender potpourri.

Thyme

Thyme is another herb that you can grow in the fall, and that has many exceptional health benefits. Thyme is also used in a lot of cooking, so there are multiple uses for it.

With thyme in your garden, you benefit by having a highly aromatic plant, as this is part of the mint family. The plant itself can provide you with thyme essential oil if you want to use it, or you can use the leaves of the plant as herbs.

This is highly fragrant, so placing it next to herbs without much fragrance will really improve your garden without overpowering it with different strong scents. You will notice that the thyme plant has small leaves and thinner stems.

Here are some ways to use it, along with tips for planting thyme and the health benefits:

Why You Should Grow Thyme

Thyme, like many other herbs, has two main purposes: it can be used in cooking to add more flavor, and it provides natural healing abilities. In many cases, you can do both, where you gain multiple health benefits from cooking more with it.

If you are interested in learning more about this herb, here are some health benefits to keep in mind:

It helps reduce your blood pressure – Having high blood pressure is known as a ‘silent killer’, because there are rarely side effects or symptoms. However, it can be a slow killer, leading to heart disease and stroke. It is important to keep your blood pressure at a reasonable level as much as possible, which you can do with regular exercise, a healthy diet, and herbs like thyme.
You get more antioxidants – It is always good to have more antioxidants in your body, which you get from healthy eating, including herbs like thyme. This herb has phenolic antioxidants, which help with the free radicals in your body. This can help boost your metabolism and prevent stress on your organs.
It promotes a healthy heart – Thyme is an excellent herb when you want better heart health. This is also due to the antioxidants in the herb, plus the fact that it has manganese and potassium. It helps promote proper heart health and reducing your risk of stroke and heart disease.
You can get more vitamin C – Thyme is an herb that has a good amount of vitamin C, similar to the sage herb. The vitamin C will help with production of your white blood cells and help to protect your muscle and tissue cell regeneration.

Ways to Use Thyme

The first way you can use thyme is to cook with it. It goes great with just about any type of meat, especially when you combine it with other herbs. You can also get good flavor when adding it to beans and tomato side dishes. Using thyme to cook soup or stew is another popular option, as well as flavoring lamb.

The majority of health benefits from the thyme herb are from consumption, so try to use it in as many meals as you can, from an egg and tomato omelet, to making your own lamb stew.

Tips for Growing Thyme

Thyme is an herb that is traditionally planted in the spring following the final frost, but you can also plant it in the fall if you live in a mild climate with a lot of warm weather in the fall. You want to have a slow-release fertilizer for this herb.

The soil should be a little alkaline, which you can get by adding some lime to the pot with the herb. It is better to start thyme with a young plant instead of trying to germinate the seeds.

Mint

Mint is a very popular herb, and luckily you can grow it in the fall! There are many types of mint, from peppermint and sweet mint, to chocolate mint herbs. They all have amazing abilities for seasoning your food and drinks, plus the various health benefits.

During the fall, you can grow most types of mint to have medicinal herbs at your disposal, plus one of the most popular herb seasonings for foods. You can even make infused water with it. Here are some things to know about mint.

Why You Should Grow Mint

Mint is not only a way to freshen your breath and season your food, but it also comes with a wide range of health benefits.

It helps reduce nausea and indigestion – Mint is wonderful for your gastrointestinal health, helping with digestion and nausea that you might experience. Mint has a cooling and calming effect, making it perfect for relieving nausea. This is safe for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and using when you have eaten something spoiled that is causing your nausea. You can also use mint to help with your digestion, cleansing your palate, reducing inflammation, and helping with stomach distress. Mint tea is often preferred for stomach issues and nausea.
You can relieve your headaches – Another amazing benefit of the mint herb is that it can help relieve your headache or migraine pain. This same soothing relief you get from nausea will also help to reduce your head pain. Whether you have acute or chronic headaches, it can be very effective. You can drink tea with mint or use crushed herbs applied directly to your forehead and temples.
It soothes depression and anxiety – If you experience mental health issues like depression or anxiety, mint is a great herb to have around. Since it is a natural stimulant, it will help with fatigue brought on by depression. It helps you get more energy, reduce sluggishness, and relax your mind from anxiety when needed. The great thing about mint is that it helps with your fatigue, but it won’t keep you from getting good sleep at night.
You get respiratory help – Many people have also seen how mint can help with their respiratory health. This includes easing a cough, burning and irritated nose, and congestion brought on by the common cold or allergies.

Ways to Use Mint

Here are some different ways you can use your mint herb:

Add the mint leaves to a pitcher of water for healthy infused water with other fruit like oranges or strawberries.
Use the mint leaves to season potatoes, vegetables, fish, or meat.
Make a batch of mojitos with the mint leaves.
Place mint leaves around your home to deter insects and fleas.
Freshen your breath by chewing on mint.

Tips for Growing Mint

The great thing about growing mint in your herb garden is that it grows quickly. This is one of the reasons you can grow it in the fall, as you can get the herbs and harvest them before the weather gets too chilly.

The mint plants spread out quite a bit, so either plant them in pots, or spread them out with plenty of space in your garden.

Chives

The last herb on the list of herbs you can plant in the fall is chives. Chives have so many uses, both for cooking and for holistic remedies. People don’t often think of chives when it comes to herbs with potential health benefits, but you actually have many benefits to choose from with this fun, green herb.

Chives are in the same family as garlic and onion, which is why with savory dishes, all of the herbs are combined into a nice seasoning. They are perennials and grow to be about a foot tall, and can grow from a bulb in the ground or you can get pots with the young plants already started for you.

Why You Should Grow Chives

Before looking at ways to grow them and learning about the different ways you can use them, it helps to know why you should grow chives. Aside from liking the flavor and wanting to cook with them, chives also have some health and holistic benefits to be aware of.

They contain vitamin K and A – Among the different vitamins and minerals included in chives, the biggest ones are vitamin K and vitamin A. These are very important nutrients your body needs to maintain its health. With vitamin K, there are getting a good amount of how much of this vitamin you need with just 1 tablespoons of chives a day. Vitamin K helps protect your bones and is often used to help with brain health.They also have vitamin A, which can help provide essential antioxidants and protect your lung and mouth from various types of cancers and diseases.
Chives have dietary fiber – If you are looking for ways to increase the fiber in your diet, don’t just look at vegetables and grains. Chives is an herb that also contains a good amount of fiber. The fiber helps with your digestive health and to keep you regular.
They can help with sleep and memory – One of the more surprising health benefits of chives is that they can help with both sleep and memory. This is due to the nutrient called choline, which is in chives. Choline helps with insomnia and relaxing your mind to help you sleep, is often used to reduce inflammation, and can help with your memory and learning capabilities.
There are even more nutrients – Aside from those already mentioned, chives also have other nutrients in them. This includes calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium, all of which are really important for your physical health. There are also trace minerals of copper, zinc, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and manganese.

Ways to Use Chives

Chives are most often used for cooking, where consuming them is going to give you all of these health benefits and more. They are extremely low in calories, so it won’t do much harm to your diet, but they provide lots of flavor and the added advantages.

You can top just about any savory dish with chives, like soup, chili, meat, seafood, or vegetable sides. You can also use them in seasoning mixes with other dried or fresh herbs, like cilantro, oregano, and rosemary.

Tips for Growing Chives

If you have an interest in using chives more often, it is recommended that you grow them at home so that you can have fresh herbs. Chives can grow in the fall as long as you live in a warm, mild climate, and have a place with full sunlight. These are not good herbs to grow indoors or on a shaded patio.

Chives come in clumps with up to 6 bulbs, and need about a month to germinate from seed. To speed up the process, visit a local nursery to get your chives as young plants. As with all herbs, you want to keep it watered, adding more water when you notice the plant getting dry.

Chives are a great herb to start growing at home since it is not difficult even for beginners, you just need to make sure you provide the herb with adequate amounts of sunlight.