Growing Herbs at Home: 6 of My Favorite Herbs

I love Basil. I put it in chicken salad and add it to my spaghetti. It can be muddled into cocktails, added to green salads, liven up homemade bruschetta and so much more! The truth is, that while I know there are many ways to use basil, I never used to bother because let's face it, most of us buy it at the store, don't use it all for the intended purpose and it dies in the fridge before we can repurpose it. I always bought too much or too little.

Honestly, the best way to use fresh basil and actually not be stressed in the process is to always have a pile of it growing on the porch. Fortunately, it seems to do the 'growing by itself' thing quite well, even in my scorched earth level of sunlight.

Rosemary is a nearly indestructible plant. I remember seeing it used as an ornamental bush and privacy screen for lawns in Los Angeles. The best thing about this herb, in my opinion, is that it seems to last through even 20 and 30 degree weather. There is no need to bring it inside for the winter, it seems if not completely happy, at least not willing to die over being left outdoors in the cold.

My indoor space is fairly limited as it is, so bringing all the non-hardy herbs inside for the winter is not something I look forward to. "Okay, the basil needs more light, so it's going to need to be right under this lamp, which I will have to leave on all day. It can't be too close to the french doors or it will still be too cold, so I can't use the natural light."

Rosemary? They've got this. Scorching desert? They're fine. Freezing arctic? Doing great. Toddler tried to drown that pot? No problem. Forgot to water it for 3 weeks and there was no rain either? Who cares.

The other great thing about rosemary is that you can put it on just about everything, kind of like the famous red hot sauce. It even works in desserts and drinks. I know, right?

Seriously, if you grow no other herb for the rest of your life, I recommend you fetch yourself a rosemary bush. It's pretty too and if you never prune it, it might even work as a fairly decent privacy screen for your patio. I haven't tried this yet, so I can't be sure.

There are plenty of uses for fresh mint at home and one of my favorites is not related to food at all, but is actually a refreshing beverage. Since I do not currently have any recipes posted that utilize this favorite herb, I'm leaning on Wikipedia for now. In the future, however, I will share my favorite use of mint in food - a minty labneh which is an absolutely necessary condiment, especially if you ever make my pita recipe.

Did I mention that simply having this plant on your patio is a discouragement to various bug life? If you don't like mosquitoes, apparently mint offends them and they are likely to steer clear. Here in the south, our mosquitoes are as big as horses, travel in herds and are undeterred by weaponized chemical sprays, so it didn't work for me. I hear its effective for some people in less barbaric regions.

This awesome little plant is another favorite of mine for its hardiness and propensity to grow at an alarming rate. The fact is that I don't tend to use small amounts of herbs. My recipes may call for a tablespoon, but I'm very likely to be dumping in a quarter of a cup. Hence, the faster the plant grows, the more thyme there is, which means I have more time to use it before I run out of thyme! I know that was lame, but I had to do it.

I don't actually recommend leaving this one to fend for itself in the cold weather, though. It seems to do well sometimes and completely lose the will to live at others. For safety's sake, I'd bring it indoors during the winter. Unfortunately it also seems to need an inordinate amount of light, which is hard to provide indoors in the winter without blinding my autistic eyeballs with the big light. One of us was not going to survive that winter and I had to choose myself. This year I was better prepared with direct, focused lights - hardware store specials. Both of us can make it through the winter this way.

Another cool aspect of this plant is that if you don't have alot of room on your patio, it might just grow onto the lawn. It's actually a really awesome groundcover plant and its yet another reason I wish I had my own yard, because that's what would grow on it - I detest manicured grass lawns.

Here is another herb which is not as yet featured in any of my posted recipes. I do use it from time to time...well, usually only with turkey during the holidays. I often see it paired with browned butter sauces over pasta or added to various fall-themed dishes that include squash soups. It has a mild earthy flavor and I consider it similar to how we use bay leaves. We're not quite sure what the bay leaf does, but it does something magical. It pulls the dish together, it creates harmony when the meal was just not quite singing.

Sage also apparently has medicinal properties, of which I am not familiar enough to ramble about, but as recently as 2017 it appears someone was trying to use it to create a modern remedy.

I love fresh Oregano. There are plenty of varieties which will impart slightly different flavor profiles. My favorite is slightly spicy and very aromatic. Oregano is one of those herbs that doesn't seem commonly available fresh in the grocery store, so until I had my own plant I wasn't aware of how amazing it is. I add it to most of my South American dishes, Italian cuisine and pretty much everything else. I know it may be frowned upon to have the same flavor profile in every dish you make, but once I find something I like, I have no problem repeating the meal or flavor for weeks until I tire of it.

If you have this plant on your patio, I guarantee you'll never bother with dried oregano again, unless the apocalypse happens and we all have to live on rations in bunkers with no access to fresh food.