Yay! Spring is finally here! The birds are singing, your house is cleaned, the bulky clothes in your closet are gone and you are ready for some fresh veggies in your garden.

Usually, everything is planted in really neat rows creating a picture perfect crop.

While this is definitely a good idea to keep your veggies organized, popping some herbs throughout your perfectly lined rows has some awesome benefits.

• Keeping away bugs without pesticides
• Loosening soil
• Improvement of nutritional value and taste of plants
• Promoting growth and germination

Pairing Vegetables with Proper Herbs

Herbs all have different medicinal, nutritional, and health-promoting qualities.

But just like you wouldn’t use ginseng to go to sleep, you won’t be able to plant just any herb next to any vegetable.

This takes a little more than just a green thumb, but some knowledge about each herbs properties.

Carrots and Herbs

If you have a supply of carrots in your garden, you know the struggle of carrot flies. If you want to keep these pesky characters away from your carrots consider including:

• Rosemary
• Sage
• Chives

If you want the best for your carrots, then keep them far away from dill.

Tomatoes and Herbs

Tomatoes are such delicate vegetables. Their soft skin is easily broken by bugs and worms alike. To keep your tomatoes safe from predators consider adding the following herbs to your tomato bed:

• Basil
• Mint
• Parsley
• Borage

Cabbage and Herbs

You’d think with the smell cabbage gives off that no bugs would want to go near it, but actually, the opposite happens. Certain bugs — like cabbage moths and cabbage worms — love this strong-smelling vegetable.

Keep those annoying pests away by planting:

• Mint
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Dill

How to Use Herbs Outside of the Garden

Herbs are incredible for everything. I am lovingly referred to as a witch doctor because I am often sharing the many benefits they have.

Herbcrafting — creating herbal concoctions for the betterment of your health and well-being — has recently been gaining more popularity as people are learning more about how badly chemicals affect your body.

Some of the different herbal creations that you can swap into your medicine cabinet include but certainly aren’t limited to:

• Cough medicine
• VapoRub
• Lotions
• Facewash
• Chapstick

You can even use herbs in your cleaning supplies! I tend to prefer using a mixture of liquid Castille soap, water, and essential oils that are known to be antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral.

These are all the less than typical ways to use herbs. Obviously, a huge way you can use them is in the kitchen!

Rosemary goes great with red potatoes and chicken.

Basil, oregano, and garlic are staples of pretty much every amazing red sauce.

The list goes on and on for making your dishes taste better.

The nutritional benefits, though, are well worth the plant. Bay leaves, for example, are an easy way to add digestive support to many dishes. *Don’t eat the bay leaf itself just cook it along with the food you’re making (i.e. soup, beans, etc.).*

Peppermint leaf and lemon balm were found to help with relieving IBS problems.

If you’re looking for ways to incorporate more herbs into your life, I highly recommend anything written by the goddess of the plant world, Rosemary Gladstar. Everything she writes is easy to understand and incredibly informative.

Have questions or comments? Drop ’em below!