Herb Garden zone 6-8

Try to get many plants of the herbs you use frequently. And try to replenish natives that have been overharvested or deprived of habitat.

Echinacea purpurea for starters. Beautiful, inexpensive and very useful- you can tincture the seeds and leaves now, and get the roots in a few years. Echinacea angustifolia is also reasonably easy to grow from plants, but is a little harder to start from seed. Rudibeckia hirta (brown eyed Susan)- the root can be used like echinacea. Oregon grape (Mahonia) is attractive and frequently used in landscaping- I threaten to dig up my parent's foundation plantings whenever I visit.

Lots of an herbalist's gardening consists of moving the weeds around: Burdock, curley dock, sheep's sorrel, dandelion and chickweed may already be growing there . Plantain, too (the poor man's hosta!) I transplant them from the lawn or other areas where they are crowding out plants.

St. John's wort, but make sure you have a medicinal rather than ornamental variety from the garden center. Yarrow, where many of the so-called non-medicinal varieties are really medicinal. If you suffer from migraines, plant clematis taugetica or feverfew (one works and the other makes it worse, depending on your migraine type.) Chamomile. Calendula. California poppy (an annual.) Garlic and other alliums. Evening primrose (you can grind up the seed like flaxseed over your cereal.)

I suggest a good bitter like blue vervain. Garlic mustard for spring eating. Stinging nettles in the back of the border or anywhere you are trying to establish some security. Red rasberry for the leaves and berries.

For pleasure, a constrained bed of mints, lemon balm, agastache, catnip and pennyroyal. Several sages including pineapple. Thyme in many varieties. Oregano and marjoram. African blue basil. I'd add rosemary but mine never survives.

To avoid government interference with your herbal use, plant comfrey (S. officinalis- not the Russian hybrids), coltsfoot, ephedra if your growing conditions permit and chapparal (ditto).

If you have woodlands, plant goldenseal and ginseng. If you plan to be there for many years, leave some of the ginseng to get old for your retirement (but protect these from the deer and poachers.) An innoculated shitaki log might be good too, and look for wild ganoderma.

If you have room for trees, slippery elm is badly needed. If you can only fit in shrubby trees, vitex agnus casta and hawthorn are good. Blueberries or bilberries (huckleberries). And don't forget a good rose with strong perfume and large hips.

The more I learn, the fewer plants I find in my garden that aren't useful herbs, regardless of why I planted them. And some of my most valued herbs just showed up, like a georgous four-foot pokeweed in my border.