As we increasingly turn back to natural cleaning products, gentler skincare and simpler ingredients in our homes, it feels timely to rediscover another old idea: the apothecary garden. For centuries, people relied on plants they could grow themselves to soothe minor ailments, support everyday health and make small, useful comforts: a calming balm, a digestive tea, a healing salve for cuts and scrapes.
This is not about rejecting modern medicine – far from it, in fact. Serious or persistent health problems should, of course, always be treated by professionals. But for small, everyday complaints (think a cut finger, a restless night, a nervous stomach, a brewing cold), or simply for the pleasure of being a little more self-sufficient, growing a few medicinal herbs can be both empowering as well as deeply satisfying.
The good news is that it doesn’t require a large garden, specialist knowledge or a life devoted to tinctures and distillation. A few pots on a windowsill or a sunny corner outside is enough to begin. Many of the most useful plants – lavender, rosemary, mint, calendula – are easy to grow, generous in spirit, and very beautiful too.
Think of this not as a return to some lost, complicated art, but as a way to reconnect with plants that have been helping humans for thousands of years, and to bring a little of that old wisdom back into everyday life.
How To Start
The good news is that you don’t need much: sunlight, decent soil, a few pots or a small patch of ground, and a willingness to experiment. Start with just three or four plants. Learn them well. Add more later. Choose herbs you’ll actually use. The best apothecary garden is not about looking impressive (though it can absolutely do that); it’s about harnessing the practical use of these wonder plants.
Plants That Are Perfect For Beginners
Lavender
Lavender is the great soother of the plant world. It’s hardy, beautiful, smells wonderfully heady.
Properties: Calming, mildly antiseptic, soothing for skin and nerves.
How to use it:
- Infuse in oil for a calming skin balm
- Add to bath salts or linen sprays
- Make a simple sleep pillow or cupboard sachet
- Use a few drops of essential oil (or a strong infusion) in a gentle sleep spray
Best for: Stress, poor sleep, minor burns and irritated skin, general emotional frazzle.
Rosemary
Rosemary is for clarity, circulation and memory – and happens to thrive on a bit of neglect (good news if your gardening skills are anything like ours).
Properties: Stimulating, warming, antimicrobial, improves circulation.
How to use it:
- Infuse in vinegar for a hair rinse
- Make a strong tea as a stimulating hair or scalp rinse
- Infuse in oil for a warming massage oil
- Add to foot soaks or bath blends
Best for: Tired muscles, sluggish scalp, mental fog, winter lethargy.
Calendula (Pot Marigold)
If you grow only one healing plant, make it calendula. It’s cheerful, easy, and extraordinarily useful for skin.
Properties: Anti-inflammatory, skin-healing, soothing, antimicrobial.
How to use it:
- Infuse in oil and turn into a simple salve or balm
- Use as a gentle skin cream base
- Add petals to bath soaks or face steams
Best for:
Cuts, grazes, dry or sore skin, eczema-prone or sensitive skin.
Mint
Mint is generous, vigorous and – a word of warning – best grown in a pot unless you want an entire garden full of it.
Properties: Cooling, digestive, antibacterial, refreshing.
How to use it:
- Make fresh teas for digestion
- Use as a steam inhalation for colds
- Add to foot baths or summer sprays
- Make a simple mouthwash with a strong infusion
Best for: Indigestion, nausea, headaches, summer heat, stale winter airways.
Thyme
Small but mighty. Thyme has been used for centuries as a protector against infection.
Properties: Strongly antiseptic, antibacterial, antiviral.
How to use it:
- Make a strong tea as a gargle or mouthwash
- Use in steam inhalations
- Infuse in honey for a winter cough syrup
Best for: Sore throats, coughs, colds, chesty infections as support (not as a replacement for modern medicine).
Chamomile
In short, the plant equivalent of a deep exhale.
Properties: Calming, anti-inflammatory, gentle, soothing to skin and digestion.
How to use it:
- Make calming teas
- Use cooled tea as an eye or skin compress
- Add to baths for relaxation
Best for:
Anxiety, poor sleep, upset stomachs, irritated skin.
Want To Know More? Here Are Our Top 5 Medicinal Growing Books
Consider our outline above as an amuse-bouche: for anyone really keen to learn more, there are tomes and tomes worth of expertise on the matter. These are the books we’d recommend to get going with.
Jekka's Complete Herb Book
When it comes to comprehensive guides to herbs, Jekka McVicar, who has run her Herb Farm for 35 years, presented the RHS video on herbs, and has won eleven gold medals at RHS Chelsea, is hard to beat on expertise. This book is a classic for a reason, the gold standard for furthering knowledge, as well as offering 200 recipes. Fun fact: she even supplied the Elizabethan herbs shown in the film adaptation of Hamnet.
The Garden Apothecary
Christine Iverson is the bestselling author of The Hedgerow Apothecary, which she followed up in 2021 with this lovely book, which clearly details how to make everything from sage foot balms to rosemary mouth wash. She has volunteered as an apothecary at the Weald and Downland Living Museum where she taught school children all about the art and science of medieval and Tudor medicine.
The Garden Apothecary
Becky Cole’s book of the same name as the above is similarly inspiring to those who wish to bring nature into the healing process. The onus is on cultivating and harnessing common plants, thus making the practice accessible, whether you hope to combat colds or make your own wild skincare.
Medicinal Herbs
Rosemary Gladstar’s book is perfect for beginners, detailing 33 herbs to know, whether you’re hoping to combat ‘an encounter with poison ivy, make a dandelion-burdock tincture to fix sluggish digestion, and brew up some lavender-lemon balm tea to ease a stressful day.’ It’s all about easy remedies that don’t put newbies off by being overly complicated.
The Apothecary's Garden: The Science And Mythology Of Medicinal Plants
You know you can trust it if it’s produced by the botanical brainiacs at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It offers a deep dive into ‘nature's pharmacy and the healing power of plants, from soothing hops, chamomile and valerian, and invigorating guarana, maca and ginseng, to the infection-fighting turmeric and tea tree and the immunity-boosting turkey tail mushroom.’ A beautiful book in every sense.
