Green thumbs are not required to gain benefits from these easy-to-grow healing herbs – they are must-haves in your garden. Whether your garden is large, pots on your patio, or just a few pots inside your home these healing herbs are great to grow for your body, mind, and soul.
Which Garden Herbs are Best for Healing?
Our Canadian climate limits the types of healing herbs that can easily be grown here. Yet, of those that do thrive, these are the best healing herbs to plant in your garden:
A common household culinary spice used for flavouring, wild to the Mediterranean, rosemary has been used as a healing herb for centuries. The Greek Muses used to consider it useful for memory. Aromatherapy use of rosemary is common too. As an extract or supplement, science has shown rosemary is impressively helpful in the human body, potentially helping with:
Does Eating Rosemary Leaves Have Health Benefits?
Yes, evidence shows rosemary leaves contain impressively capable antioxidants, as well as well-known nutrients such as iron, B vitamins, calcium, vitamins A and C. The German Commission E and European medical agencies for healing herbs, notes rosemary whole leaves may be good for nervous tension, memory enhancement, and skin conditions.
How to Use Rosemary from Your Garden
Destem the green leaves from the main stock and add whole or chop into salad dressings, marinades, soups, or stews. Rosemary is delicious combined with potatoes, whole grains, mushrooms, poultry, game, and fish. Use rosemary leaves to make salt, infuse oil, or brew to make tea. Rosemary is one of the best healing herbs to have in your garden, or admire inside as an adorable winter decoration when shaped like a tree.
Rub the leaves of the oregano plant with your fingertips and you will notice the fragrant oils left on your skin. Oregano oils are well-known for their benefits, earning this plant a place on our list of best healing herbs for your garden:
Does Eating Oregano Leaves Have Health Benefits?
A common ingredient in Mediterranean cooking, oregano is considered to be a nutritious leafy green as it contains calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamins A, C, and K. Oregano leaves are a source of antioxidants. A study suggested oregano may offer benefits to gut health, fueling the good microbes that live there. The more medicinal benefits of this healing herb are seen in studies that use an extracted oregano oil supplement.
How to Use Oregano from Your Garden
Jazz up your pizza or pasta sauce with fresh oregano leaves from your garden. Mix with olive oil to drizzle on a salad, or dress up your potatoes or other roasted vegetables with some oregano leaves. This hardy perennial is one of the best healing herbs to add to your Canadian garden.
Sage is a healing herb you want in your garden. Used to prevent pests and attract beneficial insects, surprisingly a member of the mint family, sage is an easy-to-grow plant with many culinary uses as a flavouring and traditional herbal medicine benefits. Sage may help reduce menopause symptoms. Traditionally, sage tea has been used for the treatment of:
Does Eating Sage Leaves Have Health Benefits?
A natural source of antioxidants, such as flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds, sage leaves can definitely be called a healthy choice. Vitamin K, magnesium, zinc, and copper are also present in sage leaves.
How to Use Sage from Your Garden
Spruce up your bread loaves with chopped sage, or create a brown butter sage sauce to go with pasta featuring mushrooms or squash. Simmering sage with lemon on the stovetop can make your home smell great. Burning sage is an ancient practice of indigenous tribes in North America, thought to offer clean energy. Sage smudging dates back hundreds of years.
Note: Lavender, mint, fennel, dill, ginseng, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, and St. John’s wort are some other medicinal herbs that grow well in Canada. However, with the exception of the beautiful fragrance produced by a few lavender sprigs in your home to lift your mood, the health benefits of these healing herbs are hard to access on your own – instead traditionally used as extracts. Since they aren’t the kind of healing herb you can easily pluck from your garden to use in your kitchen, they didn’t make the figurative ‘cut’ to make this list.
References:
Therapeutic effects of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and its active constituents on nervous system disorders. Iran J Basic Med Sci 2020 Sep; 23(9): 1100-1112.
Attenuation of allergen-mediated mast cell activation by rosemary extract (Rosmarinus officinalis L.). J Leukoc Biol 2020 May; 107(5): 843-857.
Essential oils of oregano: biological activity beyond their antimicrobial properties. Molecules 2017 Jun; 22(6): 986.
Chemistry, pharmacology, and medicinal property of sage (Salvia) to prevent and cure illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, depression, dementia, lupus, autism, heart disease and cancer. J Tradit Complement Med 2014 Apr-Jun; 4(2): 82-88.
Dietary prophage inducers and antimicrobials: toward landscaping the human gut microbiome. Gut Microbes Jan 2020;721-734.
