How to Use Herbs from the Garden - Cooking, Decor & Beauty

July 21, 2015 by Patti Estep 9 Comments

Learn how to use herbs from your garden with ideas you can use in your cooking, your home decor, and a couple of beauty tips.

If you've started growing herbs this year, or if you've been growing them for a while, you may be looking for some good uses for these very versatile plants. After all according to Merriam-Webster, an herb is a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal, savory, or aromatic qualities. That bring us a whole array of great plants, whose wonderful qualities can in turn be used for many culinary, decor and beauty creations.

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How to Use Herbs

1. Herbal Tea

Also known as a tisane, herbal tea is an easy and refreshing drink. I love to make it with mint from the garden but there are tons of combinations you can try. Many have great health benefits like chamomile or lavender for relaxation, and to aid your sleep. Use peppermint for an upset stomach and to reduce stress.

2. Herb Butter

Also known as compound butter, you may have had herb butter at a high-end restaurant. Either on your steak or fish or paired with the bread basket. Our favorite is chive butter, which is great on baked potatoes and fresh summer corn.

Use your chives and other herbs to make herb butter. — Chive Butter

3. Herb Oil

Herb oil is great for cooking and making beauty products. Basil steeped in olive oil is a wonderful for sauteing vegetables, on pasta and making vinaigrette. Other culinary herbs work well too. In addition, you can use herbs like calendula flowers, with its great skin softening properties, to make handmade beauty products such as lipbalm and hand salve.

4. Herb Bread

Fresh and dried herbs are great to blend into a pizza crust. You can also elevate basic refrigerated bread sticks and biscuits, by chopping up fresh or dried herbs and mixing them in the dough before baking.

5. Herbal Bath Tea Bags

Herbal tea bags make a nice inexpensive home spa treatment, and a great gift for anyone you know who enjoys a good soak in the tub. Simply drop them into the tub as you draw your bath. You can buy fusible tea bags online and place fresh or dried herbs inside, then iron shut.

6. Potpourri

How to use herbs in the home. Well they say everything old is new again. Use your herbs to make a fragrant beautiful potpourri. The process is very easy and you can make it as simple or creative as you want. This is also a great use for essential oils.

7. Herbal Wreath

Making wreaths with plant material is really simple, and since most herbs dry well, this herbal wreath will look great fresh as well as dried.

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About Patti Estep

Patti is the creator of Hearth and Vine, a home and garden blog filled with projects to inspire your creative side. She loves crafting, gardening, decorating and entertaining at her home in Pennsylvania. When she is not working on a project at home or searching for treasures at nurseries and thrift stores with her girlfriends, you’ll probably find her with family and friends, at a restaurant, or home party enjoying new and different food adventures.

Comments

Kirsten Asselta

May 23, 2020 at 10:52 am

Hi Patti,
Loved this post. This is a great idea and project to do with my grandsons. Thinking that they could each have their own garden pot. Are there any herbs that don’t grow well together and maybe need to be planted in a separate pot?
Thank you for your time and great posts of ideas.
Kirsten

Reply
- Patti Estep
  
  May 23, 2020 at 1:51 pm
  
  Kristen, the one that comes to mind is Mint. I can really take over in the garden or in a pot.
  
  Reply
Dorene @ Seasonal Chapters

July 30, 2015 at 6:38 am

Patti,
I just found your site and wanted to let you know that I have really enjoyed looking around and reading some of your older posts. I've Pinned several of your ideas and can't wait to try them. The thyme, oregano, basil and chives are growing like crazy in my herb garden right now, so I will be making some of the chive butter you describe here very soon.
In May I hosted a lavender themed birthday luncheon for my best friend. The gifts and decorations I made coordinated with the theme, and I even served a cake that had lavender in the recipe. I wish I had known about your blog at that time, as I see a few other ideas I could have incorporated into the luncheon. Thanks for the inspirational ideas....you've gained another faithful reader.

Reply
- Patti
  
  July 30, 2015 at 7:13 am
  
  Hi Dorene,
  
  Thank you for your kinds words. I'm so glad that you are enjoying the blog. Herbs are so wonderful. Most are pretty easy to grow and great for using in many ways. It's nice to know that other people enjoy them as much as I do.
  
  Patti
  
  Reply
Debbie prater

July 21, 2015 at 2:21 pm

I love herbs and cook with them all the time. Love your ideas!

Reply
- Patti
  
  July 21, 2015 at 5:24 pm
  
  Thanks Debbie! I bet you have some great recipes.
  
  Reply
- Patti
  
  July 21, 2015 at 5:25 pm
  
  Thanks Debbie!
  
  Reply
Beth Billstrom

July 21, 2015 at 7:22 am

Love to use my herbs in the fall to make bread, pizza crusts, and muffins. Thanks for the other great ideas, too. I can't believe how fast this summer is going and soon I'll be harvesting all my herbs!

Reply
- Patti
  
  July 21, 2015 at 8:48 am
  
  Hi Beth,
  
  I haven't made muffins yet, but hey, why not. Thanks for the inspiration. This has been a crazy summer for me. Definitely too fast.
  Thanks for stopping by,
  Patti
  
  Reply