How to Grow Herbs: Perennial & Annual Herb Guide
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21 herbs, organised by what matters most when deciding what to grow in the USA: hardy perennials you plant once and crop for years, versus tender annuals and biennials you sow fresh every season. Each herb below links to its own full growing guide -- exact sowing windows, soil, harvest and pest/disease detail live there, not duplicated here.
A note on timing: Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia organises herbs by Cool-Season (chives, parsley, cilantro, dill, thyme, sage -- sow as soon as soil can be worked) versus Warm-Season (basil, rosemary, oregano -- wait for warm soil). That maps closely, though not perfectly, onto the plant-once-vs-resow split below -- most Cool-Season herbs here are also the hardy perennials, and most Warm-Season herbs are the tender annuals.
Perennial Herbs: Plant Once, Crop for Years
An easy-to-grow, evergreen Mediterranean shrub -- keeps its leaves and stays pickable all year once established.
A bushy, spreading Mediterranean sub-shrub, hardy down to around -15°C once established -- one of the toughest herbs here.
A low, dwarf evergreen shrub reaching about 30cm -- sweet, earthy, peppery flavour, and needs very little space.
A genuinely distinct hybrid thyme -- same growing needs as common thyme, but with lemon scent and flavour instead of thyme's peppery note.
A hardy Mediterranean perennial whose flowers are genuinely good for pollinators, not just the kitchen.
French tarragon is prized for flavour but does not come true from seed -- buy a named plant, not a seed packet, for the real thing.
A clump-forming perennial with mild onion-flavoured leaves -- one of the easiest herbs to start from seed indoors in early spring.
Related to common chives but with flat, strap-shaped leaves and a flavour closer to garlic than onion.
Vigorously spreading -- grow it in a bottomless container sunk in the ground, or it will take over a bed.
A sterile hybrid mint that produces no viable seed -- propagate only by division, cuttings or runners.
Closely related to celery and parsley, with a strong celery-scented leaf -- a little goes a long way in the kitchen.
Grown for aromatic foliage and seed, not the swollen bulb -- a genuinely distinct type from Florence fennel.
A third, distinct fennel type with its own RHS page -- different again from both Herb Fennel and Florence Fennel.
A slow-growing evergreen shrub, hardy outdoors in milder winters but needs bringing under cover anywhere colder reaches it.
Annual & Biennial Herbs: Sow Fresh Each Year
Not hardy -- that single fact drives everything about growing it: sow late, keep warm, and it will not survive a frost.
A genuinely different species from sweet basil (its own RHS profile), also called tulsi, and equally frost-tender.
Technically a biennial (flowers in its second year) but almost always grown fresh from seed each year for leaf quality.
Shares its species with common parsley but is a dual-purpose, root-forming variety, also called parsley root.
Fast-growing and upright, to about 60-100cm, with finely dissected leaves -- happiest sown direct rather than transplanted.
The same plant as cilantro -- grown for leaf, it runs to flower fast in heat, so sow little and often rather than one large batch.
Not fully hardy -- RHS and NC State both treat it as needing winter protection or annual resowing outside its native Mediterranean range.
Pots or Ground?
Either works for most herbs. Mediterranean perennials (rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano) actively prefer the free drainage a pot gives them, especially on heavy soil. Spreading mints need a container regardless -- planted in open ground, they run. Tender annuals like basil do well in pots that can be moved to the warmest, most sheltered spot available. Ground beds suit vigorous perennials like lovage and fennel that need more root room than a pot comfortably gives.
Which Herbs Are Easiest to Start With?
The hardy perennials above are the lower-maintenance choice for a beginner: plant once, and rosemary, sage, thyme and chives crop for years with minimal attention. Tender annuals like basil and coriander are equally easy to grow but need resowing every year and more careful timing around your last frost -- a real difference in ongoing effort, not just a difference in first-year difficulty.
Sowing dates vary too much herb to herb for one combined calendar to be useful -- each herb's own growing guide above carries its real, region-specific sowing window.
Common Herb-Growing Mistakes
- Overcrowding fast-bolting herbs. Coriander/cilantro, dill and basil bolt especially fast if overcrowded or grown in poor, dry soil -- give them real spacing.
- Poor ventilation indoors or under glass. Stagnant air encourages fungal problems on herbs grown under cover -- keep air moving and ventilate regularly.
- One big sowing of fast-bolting herbs. Regular smaller sowings of quick-to-bolt herbs give a steadier supply than a single large sowing.
- Planting mint straight into open ground. Its spreading roots will take over a bed within a season or two -- always grow it in a container, even when the container is sunk into the ground.
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