Herbal What do you consider essential herbs for a (zone 4) medicinal herb garden?

WisconsinGardener

WisconsinGardener

Loony Member
Years ago, I created an herb garden. It was very pretty - geometrically laid out, etc. I grew a few things, including cutting flowers and some culinary herbs, including (at least what was labelled) oregano. Well, then life happened - kids, illness, etc. 15 years go by - bringing me up to this summer, and my herb garden was only an oregano pit. There was literally nothing in it except oregano, which had escaped and also taken over the paths and surrounding lawn. I have since found a few lemon balm plants that managed to hang on in the middle of all that.

Now, I have this great urgency to get a culinary/medicinal herb garden in place THIS SUMMER. God has given me the time (since my horrible job ended in January) and finally the strength (my body is much better - the brain still not so good, but hopefully improving) to do it.

The area is fairly large. There are 4, 4x12 foot beds. I have reclaimed one and two are in progress and will be ready soon.

Lemon balm is good, because I'm thinking I'll be caring/cooking for people who are stressed.

If I could find the real oregano that oregano oil is made from (I doubt that what I have is that), I'd grow that.

I'm tempted to grow some teasel, (if I could keep it from taking over) for Lyme Disease - my own and potentially others. Anyone know if it has other uses?

What else do you consider essential for both cooking and medicine?
 
Tessa

Tessa

Contributing Member
I would go with heirloom seeds/plants. I grow elderberry, blackberry, comfrey, mullein, passionflower, echinacea, plantain, sweet annie, willow and lambs ear for medicinal purposes. I haven't listed every medicinal plant I grow and I try to add more plants each year.
 
Cyclonemom

Cyclonemom

Veteran Member
I'm in the NE part of WI. (Not sure where you're at).

I have a mix of culinary and medicinal.

Medicinal: Calendula, Echinacea, Yarrow, Blue Anise Hyssop, Chamomile, Bee Balm, St. John's Wort (but if you live in the country, you may have it growing "wild" in the ditches.)

We also have a couple mints, tarragon, lemon balm, rosemary (but you need to bring it in the house to overwinter), a couple varieties of thyme, sage, lovage, salad sorrel, winter savory, dill (it reseeds well), garlic and onion chives, & oregano. Others that don't overwinter: cilantro (but the coriander seeds will reseed well), basil, and parsley.

But my fav of all - GARLIC! Plant in a couple weeks (Columbus day is the traditional day, but I never seem to get mine in that early), mulch heavily before it snows, and you're set!
 
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