Growing Herbs: 5 Easy Plants for Cooking

You’ll love the flavors of these culinary favorites.

photo by Karolina Grabowski, from Pexels

Gardening, particularly growing edibles, intimidates a lot of beginner gardeners. While it’s true that some veggies are tricky to grow well (looking at you, cucumber), others will literally grow from an errant seed dropped into a sidewalk crack (hello, tomato.)

Still, there are choices to be made when it comes to which food plants are the easiest for beginners, and herbs have to be at the top of that list. Mainly used as seasonings, many herbs originated in Mediterranean climates and bring their survivalist genes to the garden.

Here are five of the easiest, tastiest herbs for a beginner to grow for cooking.

Photo by Fran on Unsplash

1. Rosemary. If there’s one herb every cook should have on hand, it’s this incredibly fragrant, incredibly tough perennial shrub. Rosemary tolerates both heat and drought, as well as freezing temps — as long as the soil drains well. Rosemary can’t tolerate wet roots, especially in the winter, so be sure to plant it where it gets maximum sun. A pot or raised bed is perfect for this dry-loving herb, and hot days bring out the best of the essential…