Grow These Herbs for a Skin Care Garden

What if you had the ability to naturally ease aches and pains, and nourish your skin! Grow these eight health-giving herbs for a skin care garden. 

There are many herbs that will work if you want to grow a skin care garden. These are my top eight picks. They are easy to grow and healing for your body. You may even have them in your garden already!

Aloe Vera

Aloe is known for its ability to soothe and cool burns. These healing properties also make it good for healing other wounds. It can help prevent infection from setting into a wound and aids in skin regeneration as it heals.

Type: perennial
Season: warm
Propagation: by cutting or division
Garden Zone: 8 through 11, makes a good houseplant for all other areas
Sun: afternoon shade
Harvest: as needed for ailments
Specifics: Grow in containers and bring indoors at the first sign of frost.

Mint

The mint family is known for their aromatic natures, which come from the leaves and the high levels of volatile oils. Often used for cooking mint also has many medicinal properties.

• Aids nervous system complaints (anxiety, depression, headaches, insomnia, dementia)
• Helps with digestive system complaints: (indigestion, gas, cramps, nausea, colic)
• Mint is antimicrobial for infections: (bacterial, viral, fungal)
• Helps clear the respiratory system (infection, congestion, asthma)

Type: herbaceous perennial
Season: warm
Propagation: by cutting or division
Garden Zone: 3 through 11
Sun: full
Harvest: as needed, or before flowering in the late summer
Specifics: The plant will die back in the fall and return in the spring. Benefits from fertilization

Lavender

There are many types of lavender, and every gardening zone can grow it. Some varieties get long stalks, some get large flower heads, and some reach 3 feet tall. All lavender is fragrant and is known medicinally to sooth and calm nerves.

Lavender is antibacterial and antiseptic and useful for disinfecting cuts, wounds, and sores while it soothes pain and aids healing. It also helps the itch and pain of insect bites and is a great addition to herbal bath salts.

Type: Perennial
Season: warm
Propagation: by cutting
Garden Zone: 5 through 10
Sun: full
Harvest: summer, before the flowers completely open
Specifics: Grow in containers for cool climates. Lavender needs free-draining lean soil, with little amendments. Cutting back after flowering may encourage a second bloom.

Cilantro

Cilantro leaves are astringent and have a soothing and cooling effect on the skin. It can be macerated and combined with honey for a soothing face cleaner, or combined with yogurt for a facial mask.

Type: Annual
Season: cool
Propagation: by seed
Garden Zone: 3 through 8
Sun: full sun to partial shade
Harvest: spring, before the hot weather arrives
Specifics: Cilantro bolts (goes to seed) easily in warm weather and becomes bitter.

Yarrow

This herb stops bleeding and is great for fighting infection both in wounds and internally. This is my go-to herb when I feel a sore throat coming on. The colorful plants you find at the greenhouses don’t have the medicinal properties that the white flower plants do.

Type: Herbaceous Perennial
Season: warm
Propagation: by seed or division
Garden Zone: 3 through 9
Harvest: summer, after the flowers are open
Specifics: Yarrow is a very rugged plant and is quite drought tolerant. It will naturalize in the garden.

Plantain

Plantago major is also called white man’s footprint and grows almost everywhere in the USA and Canada. This amazing “weed” can handle many things. It almost instantly takes the sting away from a bee sting or a spider bite. Plantain has drawing properties that help remove splinters and venom, and it is an anti-inflammatory that helps with many different skin issues. It is the secret ingredient in our Chamomile Oat Sugar Scrub.

Type: Herbaceous Perennial
Season: cool
Propagation: by seed
Garden Zone: 3 through 9
Sun: full sun to partial shade
Harvest: spring – fall before the flower heads appear
Specifics: there are two leaf varieties of plantain; broadleaf and narrow leaf. This plant will naturalize like dandelion if left to go to seed.

Calendula

This plant is easily grown from seed and works equally well in a container or a garden. Calendula is an old-fashioned herb known for healing skin issues and infections. Use with Lavender for burns and in lotion bars.

Type: Annual
Season: cool
Propagation: by seed
Garden Zone: 3 through 8
Sun: full sun
Harvest: flowers as needed, but before the heat of the season sets in.
Specifics: Calendula blooms will slow down in extreme heat, in temperate areas they will bloom until frost.

German Chamomile

German Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), is an annual that can grow up to 2-feet high and contain essential oils and antioxidants that are calming and relaxing. It is known for its subtle sedative properties from flavonoids and volatile oils, so drinking your chamomile before bed is going to soothe you to sleep. It is safe for children
Make an infusion of chamomile to use on minor skin irritations. A 2011 study found that a chamomile solution used as a compress for skin lesions was as effective as hydrocortisone.

Type: Annual
Season: warm
Propagation: by seed, direct sow in the spring or fall
Garden Zone: 3 through 9
Sun: full sun or partial shade
Harvest: flower heads right before they become mature
Specifics: Water regularly, being careful not to overwater. Allow soil to go almost dry between watering, and then soak thoroughly

What other herbs do you grow in your skin care garden?