Designing a Medicinal Herb Garden for Pollinators and People

Add herbs and other low maintenance perennials to your garden to help pollinators and other beneficial wildlife, while many also provide medicinal properties.

Plants native to your region have co-evolved with pollinator species in order to provide essential nutrition. Selecting climate-appropriate species is vitally important.

Rosemary

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is an evergreen plant with fragrant white, pink and purple blooms in spring and summer that thrives well here. Easily maintained under sun or partial shade conditions, this variety tolerates drought well.

Through history, this plant has long been seen as a sign of love and rememberance. Egyptians buried rosemary sprigs with their dead; Greeks believed this aromatic herb enhanced memory – so much so they wore sprigs of rosemary when studying for exams!

Folklore holds that carrying rosemary twigs and flowers with you is said to help a woman find her true love, ward off jealousy, add great texture to garden beds and even train into topiary forms.

Huntington Carpet

As gardeners transition away from lush lawns to succulents and cacti, many long for the fragrant, flowering herbs they once had. Some species like Salvia spp require no additional watering once established and make an ideal fill-in plant between spiky plants, according to Fernandez. Silver edge thyme makes an especially good ground cover choice, offering lemon-scented leaves that bloom into beautiful lilac flowers each spring; making this species an excellent partner with sheared rosemary shrubs or as part of an informal hedge!

Huntington Carpet, an easy-care herb, thrives in hot sun with minimal water needs once established. This low-growing trailing cultivar makes an attractive groundcover, hiding slopes or cascading over hillsides with ease. It makes an attractive foil for sheared or sculpted rosemary plants, blue-gray succulents or any sheared or sculpted rosemary plants; and also looks good as an accompaniment to sheared or sculpted rosemary sculptures.

Thyme

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is an easy and fragrant perennial to cultivate in various climates. The aroma is spicy-herbal; once used as incense in Greek temples and burnt by Roman soldiers on long campaigns to give courage and activity boosts.

Thymus, with over 150 species found throughout the world, includes upright or creeping species that range in colors, flower shapes and sizes from upright to creeping forms. Some are fragrant while others bloom from summer through fall or even winter depending on species and location.

Plant thyme where it receives full sun and moist well-drained soil. Thyme thrives in drought conditions and resists deer grazing, while drawing in pollinators like hummingbirds and bees. Plus, its medicinal uses are well known – many believe thyme can soothe coughs and colds!

Nettles

Nettles may appear to be an unwanted garden nuisance, but they’re an essential herb for butterflies and foragers alike. Their dense clusters of blooms attract an assortment of butterflies such as the Comma, Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Tortoiseshell species; its long fiberous stems can also be used to create fishing nets or snares for fishing or as bait for traps; alternatively they can also be used medicinally as diuretics and for joint pain relief while being an iron-rich leaf vegetable vegetable source!

Nettles may be uncomfortable when touched, but once cooked their stinging hairs lose their irritating power. When looking at similar plants like Urtica dioica (henbit or dead nettle) make sure that its leaves have jagged edges but no stinging hairs are present; dead nettles do not.

Oregon Grape Root

Oregon Grape Root (Mahonia nervosa) contains Berberines with antibacterial and immune-enhancing properties that support its use. Furthermore, Oregon Grape Root can boost liver health while improving fat and protein digestion for faster weight loss and reduced constipation symptoms.

This plant makes for a stunning shade or ground cover and thrives in most Western Washington/Oregon climate zones, pairing well with trees such as Douglas-fir, western hemlock, ponderosa pine vine maple salal sword fern etc.

Your garden site’s surroundings should determine which cultivars or seeds to purchase for optimal success and genetic diversity preservation. Oregon grape root was traditionally utilized by North American tribal lineages as an aid for digestion, tonic and immune support.