The Ultimate Herb Garden for Zone 6

Above: My herb & vegetable garden outside my back door in 2019.

Updated March 21, 2024

There’s one thing I believe every single household should have — a gorgeous, flowery, fragrant and delicious Herb Garden.

Planting and maintaining an herb garden is truly one of the most fulfilling things you can do with your time. An herb garden is generally easier to take care of than a veggie garden — herbs don’t require staking, there is very little fertilizing or pruning involved, and so many herbs are perennials in Zone 6, which means they will come back year after year without needing to replant!

You’ll also save money at the grocery store if you love cooking with herbs. We all know plastic packaged herbs at the grocery store run $4-$5 for a small handful of each herb, sold individually. By planting a small garden for yourself, you could spend $4 on an herb plant and reap whole handfuls for years to come.

Having an herb garden will naturally open your curiosity to trying new things with them: making sun teas, perhaps medicinal tinctures (Rosemary Gladstar is the queen of herb knowledge), and simply adding herbs to more things you eat. Herbs are full of health, flavor, and will even turn a blank patch of earth into a beautiful haven for bees & butterflies!

Choosing a location for Your zone 6 Herb Garden

Most herbs do best in part sun or full sun gardens. Choose a spot that is closest to the door you use to and from the kitchen, or somewhere snug near your home. The closer your herb garden is to your house entryway, the more likely you are to cut from it. This is a Permaculture site design principle that encourages us to plan/plant what we will use the most, in a location that is convenient, so we get the most out of it.

thoughts on growing herbs in planters

Many herbs grow low to the ground, so it may be easier for you to harvest them in a raised bed or planter. Or perhaps you only have patio space — herb gardens are the easiest and best way to make use of open patio space with a planter. I have grown lots of herb gardens in planters when I was a garden educator in the City of Chicago.

This type of raised cedar planter works wonderfully for herb gardens and because it is made out of cedar wood, it is naturally rot resistant.

I also love the look of these metal raised bed garden planters. Herbs would grow lovely in these and make harvesting easy.

You’ll want to fill the planter with a mix of compost and Potting Soil, which is different from “top soil” or “garden soil” because potting soil contains vermiculite and is light and airy for container gardening. I always recommend using a high quality potting soil, especially when you’re growing an edible herb or vegetable garden. Higher quality, organic potting soils contain added nutrients that will keep your herb plants happy throughout their entire first season, and won’t poison you when you ingest your food. I do not advocate using Miracle-Gro potting soil.

Some good brands of potting soil are: Fox Farm Ocean Forest Potting Soil -or- Vermont Compost Company Organic Potting Soil

You can learn about organic fertilizers here in this post — this post was written for flower farming, but herbs and flowers require similar nutrients so you can take the advice I’ve given in there.

starting a new herb garden in the ground

If you are starting with a lawn and plan to dig up a patch of grass for a new herb garden, you can opt to either dig out the grass and add soil on top of it (lots of grunt work) or you can create a garden using the Sheet Mulch Method, which is the easiest way to start a new in-ground garden. Read this post to learn How to Start a Garden Using the Sheet Mulching Method

how to prep Soil for an Herb Garden

Most herbs enjoy fertile soil that has been amended with compost. I also add Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculant and Alfalfa Meal to the planting hole. You can make your own compost or buy bagged compost at your local garden center. Simply top your planting area with 3” of compost and use a hard rake to spread it around. Tilling your soil is not necessary if you use the Sheet Mulching Method or are planting herbs in a planter.

To learn more about soil health, no-till gardening and organic fertilizers, I have a few comprehensive posts here:

5 Steps to Building Healthy Organic Garden Soil

Why is Tilling So Bad?

How to Start a Biodiverse Compost Pile

Where to Buy Herb Plants for zone 6

My favorite place to buy plants, other than a local nursery or growing from seed myself, is Richters Herbs. They are in Canada, right across the border from us in Western New York. I have ordered numerous flats of herbs from Richters and all have arrived in excellent condition. Their shipping rates are very reasonable compared to other sites that ship plants (I order A LOT of online plants for my flower farm).

Richters Herbs also has the most amazing selection of every herb you could imagine… you must check them out!

the best herbs for a zone 6 herb garden

There are thousands of herbs you could choose for your herb garden, and I will always recommend planting the ones you will actually use and are really excited about trying!

Here is a list of 19 of the easiest herbs to grow in Zone 6, and how to plant them…

perennial herbs for zone 6 that will keep coming back every year

CHIVES. Plant 1-2 onion chive plants and they will keep getting bigger every year with absolutely zero effort.
GARLIC CHIVES. Same deal as onion chives but garlic chive plants are a bit smaller so I would plant 4-5.
SORREL. If you really want to jazz up your green routine, you have to plant garden sorrel! This is one of the most fun plants in the garden, in my opinion, despite its plain green appearance. The flavor of these green leaves are unbelievable — sour and tangy, amazing raw to brighten up a salad or cooked down in soup. Sorrel is perennial in Zone 6 and will come back bigger every year with no effort.
THYME. Regular English Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Orange Balsam Thyme… there are so many fun varieties of thyme available! Plant a few of each of these varieties and watch them grow bigger each year with no effort. You could also try filling in patchy grassy areas in your yard with Creeping Thyme.
SAGE. I love growing a combination of Berggarten Sage, Tricolor Sage and Purple Sage. Plant a few individual sage plants and watch them take off and get bigger every year with, again, no effort on your part.
OREGANO. Did you know that oregano produces the most lovely pink, white or purple flowers in the summer? I actually sell them as cut flowers on my flower farm! Plant a delicious Greek Oregano plant and watch it get bigger every year with zero effort.
LEMON BALM. Lemon balm is a special plant for me — I love using it especially in the summer to add to sun tea or to make a sun infusion on its own. Lemon balm will grow bigger every year with zero effort.
MINT. Every person ever will tell you not to plant mint in your garden or it will take over. I encourage you to plant as much mint as you want… in a pot! That way the mint will be contained and won’t take over your entire garden. It will still come back every year in the pot, even in the most frigid of temperatures over winter. Chocolate Mint, Applemint, Ginger Mint or Peppermint… there are so many fun mints to choose from; wish I had room for them all.
LAVENDER. What is better than a lavender border around your entire herb or veggie garden? This is exactly what I’ve done in my backyard using my favorite French ‘Grosso’ variety. In Zone 6, Spanish lavenders will not come back after the winter, but I’ve had much success growing English and French lavender varieties as long as they are planted in a spot where soil freely drains.
RHUBARB. Plant rhubarb with a crown (root). Rhubarb is one of my favorite plants to have in the garden because the pink growing tips will begin popping out of the ground in very early Spring… a sign that so much beauty is yet to come! Rhubarb plants get huge (like zucchini), so make sure to give this one a lot of space. Rhubarb will grow best in the ground, not in a planter.
PARSLEY. Curly or Italian parsley will come back for several years in Zone 6, and will self-seed for new plants in the future. We grow through a ton of parsley in our house and we’ve saved so much money on this one patch of parsley alone! We have about a dozen plants in the ground, and parsley will also do well in a planter.
LOVAGE. Lovage is an herb with an incredibly unique flavor that I describe as “celery on steroids.” The flavor of lovage is pungent but so interesting that I’ve planted it in multiple planting beds in my backyard. Not only is lovage great for infusing into vinegars, the plant itself grows an umbellifer-type flower which attracts hoverflies and other beneficial predatory insects that will help keep other flying garden pests under control. Lovage gets tall (5+ feet) and will grow best in the ground, not in a planter.
CATNIP. For your cat babies. Catnip plants will come back bigger every year in Zone 6 with no effort and your cat’s love will grow for you all the more.
YARROW. I personally don’t eat yarrow, but it is my all-time favorite perennial plant and is considered a medicinal herb in many parts of the world. Interestingly, yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a coagulant and I have used it to stop bleeding on my cut fingers many times in the farm and when I’ve cut my fingers pretty badly while using a knife in the kitchen. Yarrow leaves, when crushed and applied to a bleeding wound, will stop pain and bleeding almost immediately. Therefore, I’ll always have yarrow around. It comes in lovely colors and will bloom for years in the herb garden. Source Native Yarrow plants here.

annual herbs for zone 6 that need to be replanted every year

BASIL. If you have an herb garden and you don’t plant basil, what are you even doing!? My favorite basil varieties for eating (making pesto, caprese sandwiches and salads, adding to pizza/pasta, etc) are: Genovese, Lemon, Thai and Red Genovese Purple Basil). Basil is easily grown from seed but will mature quicker if planted using a transplant. Make sure to plant after any sign of frost (3-4 wk of May in Zone 6) because basil is a very tender perennial.
ROSEMARY. Will Rosemary plants survive in Zone 6? Contrary to popular belief, Rosemary does not survive well in Zone 6. I have tried leaving rosemary plants in the ground over winter and they die every single year, without fail. If you tried insulating the plant with a thick layer of woodchips over the winter, that could possibly help keep it alive, but I just replant it every year with a few new plants.
LEMONGRASS. Another herb that is absolutely lovely and necessary if you enjoy cooking thai soups, ramen, or any sort of Asian/Indian food. Buy a few lemongrass plants — starting from seed will take too long.
CILANTRO. These last two herbs on the list are the only two I recommend actually planting with cilantro seeds directly in the garden! Cilantro prefers cool temperatures, so add seeds to the garden about 1” apart starting in mid-April and keep seeding them every two weeks (if you have enough space) until mid-May. This “succession planting” of cilantro seeds will allow you a constant supply of cilantro greens.
DILL. Dill also does extremely well planted from dill seeds directly into the garden. Plant dill seeds at the same time you would plant cilantro seeds, starting in mid-April thru mid-May. Dill produces a gorgeous umbellifer-type flower that attracts hoverflies and other predatory insects, like Lovage does! I love adding dill flowers to salads; they make food so pretty!

how to water herbs in zone 6

Many herbs listed here are Perennial, which means they will come back year after year with vigor. As the herbs become established in their first year, they will need to be watered 2-3 times per week. In the following years, your Perennial herbs will have developed drought tolerance and will only need water during the bone-dry, hot weeks of the Summer.

You should add shredded leaf mulch or woodchips to your herb garden to help keep soil moisture in. The leaves and woodchips will break down and add food for earthworms and microbes to keep your garden in tip top health. Learn more about how mulch works here.

when to cut back herbs in zone 6

At the end of the season, do not cut back your perennial herbs. Leave the foliage on the plants until Spring. By leaving them alone over winter, they will have a better chance of survival if the temperatures go below normal (which is becoming more frequent due to climate change/climate disruption). You may cut back your plants in the Spring when you see new growth occurring at the base of the plant. Cut the plants with garden snips above the new growth to signal them to grow big and tall.

Herbs that require cutting back in the Spring are: Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Sorrel, Oregano, Lemon Balm, Mint, Lavender (leave the greens and only cut back the flowers), Sage (leave the greens and only cut back the flowers), Rhubarb, Parsley, Lovage, Catnip, Yarrow (leave the greens and only cut back flowers).

Year after year, I leave Thyme completely alone in the Spring and it regrows every time (thyme?) with vigor.

For annual herbs that die over winter, you can simply cut them down at the soil base and leave the roots in the ground to decompose and feed soil microbes over winter.

You may also opt to cover your herb garden with a plastic cover to keep some of your herbs producing through the winter. This will work for Thyme, Sage, and possibly Oregano. Consider planting these three herbs together if you intend to extend their season through winter.

Happy herb planting! peace, love, plant magic.

Fran Parrish