Growing Guides

Sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana) is oregano's gentler, sweeter cousin, and one of the friendlier woody herbs to grow from seed. It is frost-tender, so treat it as a warm-season plant in a sunny bed or pot, where its delicate, floral...

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) is one of the quickest herbs to grow, and a single plant gives you two things: the fresh leaves you snip for salsa and tacos, and the dried seed we call coriander. The catch is timing. Cilantro...

Florence fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum) gives you three harvests from one sowing: a crisp, anise-sweet bulb, feathery fronds to use as a herb, and aromatic seed for the spice rack. The whole trick to growing fennel is keeping it...

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) is a delicate, anise-scented herb, one of the four classic French fines herbes, and the quiet lift behind good eggs, fish, and spring dishes. Unlike most herbs, it actually prefers a little shade, so growing chervil is...

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are about the easiest herb a beginner can grow, and one of the most forgiving. Sow the seed once and this clump-forming perennial hands you slender, oniony leaves and edible purple flowers, then dies back and returns...

One honest thing before you buy a packet: tarragon grown from seed is always Russian tarragon (Artemisia dracunculoides), not the French kind. True French tarragon is sterile and can only be grown from cuttings, so every tarragon seed is the...

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a kitchen essential that earns its space, even if it makes you wait at the start. This flat-leaf Italian variety has a clean, peppery flavor and a heavy yield, and once it settles in it gives...

Basil is the plant that makes a summer herb garden smell like summer, and growing it from seed is one of the easiest wins for a new gardener. This warm-season annual (Ocimum basilicum) germinates in days, wants full sun and...

Summer savory (Satureja hortensis) is a fast, fuss-free annual herb with a warm, peppery flavor, and it goes from seed to harvest in about two months. Gardeners have leaned on it as the bean herb for generations, since it partners...