The Best Herbs to Plant in the Fall
While many guides recommend planting your favorite flowers and veggies around springtime, fall is actually a great time to plant your herb garden. You can opt for hardier herbs, including rosemary and thyme, which will continue to grow well in climates with mild winter weather.
As you enter the cool gardening season, consider some fall herbs, so you have plenty of time to use them in soups and cold-weather recipes before their time is done. Check out our guide to herbs you should plant in the fall and learn more about care, maintenance, and pruning today!
Creating Your Fall Herb Container Garden
When you’re a beginner, we recommend starting off small. Pot your herbs in small containers that your can move around as needed. If your balcony weather is a little more consistent, you can also grow your herbs in a long planter that provides enough room for herbs to grow, but still allows you to better control soil health, pests, and diseases.
Our Favorite Fall Herbs
There are no requirements for how many herbs you should plant or which combination is best. Just choose the fall herbs you like to use most from this list. Plant some or all of them to create a custom garden you’ll love!
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Dill
- Garlic
- Sage
- Chives
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Chamomile
- Calendula
Your Parsley Guide
Parsley is a great fall herb because it’s low-maintenance and loves cool weather. In fact, bright sunlight can actually burn its rosettes. Choose between flat-leaf and curly parsley, as both do well for herbs you plant in fall. Because parsley is a biennial, if the weather doesn’t get too cool in your area, your parsley may last through the fall and past winter.
Your Cilantro Guide
We love cilantro for its fresh tangy flavors in everything from pasta salad to salsa. Plant your cilantro in the fall so you have time to enjoy it throughout the cooler months. You can also harvest the seeds, called coriander, and grind them up for your recipes.
Cilantro does have a tendency to bolt as the weather heats up, so keep an eye out for flower buds and prune them before the plant can divert energy to flowering instead of growing more leaves.
Your Dill Guide
Another herb to plant in fall, dill is very forgiving in all types of conditions. This fall herb attracts tons of pollinators but is incredibly sensitive to birds. Prevent birds from decimating your plant stock with a protective net or other structure that keeps them out! Just like cilantro, dill produces seeds that are delicious in salads and soups when your garden is in hibernation.
Your Garlic Guide
As part of the Allium family, garlic isn’t technically considered an herb, but we use it in our kitchen to flavor our meals. You can plant garlic cloves in the fall (or buy bulbs already growing) and let them thrive throughout the winter. The most important part of this plant is safe underground, so as long as your soil doesn’t get too cold, it will grow for you to harvest in spring and summer.
You can also regrow garlic from a single clove, so harvest your bulbs and save a sliver to replant in your garden!
Your Sage Guide
The perfect fall herb, sage has stunning silver leaves that provide a unique visual contrast to many other plants. As a woody perennial, they’ll last in your container garden for years with the proper care! Use sage fresh or dried in your recipes and propagate it during spring by putting some cuttings in water until their roots grow strong enough for you to plant.
Your Chive Guide
Like garlic, chives are not technically herbs, but they grow well in your herb garden. Pot them in the early fall and watch as they grow far more than you could ever use. In mild climates, chive will continue to grow throughout the winter. If you live in cooler climates, they will die down. However, you can expect them to regrow after winter with gorgeous purple blossoms.
Your Rosemary Guide
A woody evergreen from the Mediterranean, rosemary is an especially hardy fall herb. It does best in sun and warmth, but it can definitely survive winter climates. The fragrance of rosemary also makes it a very pleasant plant to keep indoors, especially if you’re worried about a frost hitting the leaves or soil too hard.
Your Thyme Guide
If you’ve got a kitchen garden, then thyme is the perfect fall herb for you! It does well in most seasons, including far into the cooler months. Thyme grows very quickly, so be prepared to prune and use the mature leaves in your kitchen.
Many people confuse thyme and rosemary because they have a similar leaf structure and coloring, but thyme has shorter leaves and slightly broader leaves.
Your Chamomile Guide
Part of the Aster family, chamomile is an amazing choice for teas and tinctures – especially with a lavender complement. Chamomile is incredibly low maintenance, as it self-seeds for the next growing season. So don’t worry when your chamomile plants wilt and brown – they’ll come back strong in spring!
Your Calendula Guide
The final fall herb on our list is calendula which is the easiest herb to grow. It will grow fast in temperate and cool weather. Steep the flowers with your chamomile tea to enjoy their antioxidant properties.
One big benefit of having calendula in your garden is that it draws pests, like aphids and caterpillars, away from your salad greens, ensuring your lettuce thrives.
Low Maintenance Solutions
There are so many reasons we love herbs, including their low maintenance requirements and fast-growing tendencies. If you want to make growing herbs even easier, combine your planters with the Artesian grow kits for self-watering that cuts down on care time.