The turn into September has brought so much relief to the landscape in Southern Oregon. We got our first real rain in many months. There are tiny little sprouts of grass coming up amidst the pale parched yellow fields. It feels so nice to be entering the time of year when we can allow nature to take its course and grow things without intervention. I get a little tired of watering my garden by the end of the summer. Thank you to the rain for taking care of that now. There are some other things we can let changing of the seasons help us with and one of them is growing medicinal herbs. 

A lot of medicinal herbs are perennial plants that require periods of cold and wet weather to germinate. You can mimic these conditions by cold stratifying your seeds in a fridge. But you can also just let nature take its course and plant the seeds that need cold stratification in the fall. Planting in the fall is a great way to get a head start on plants you may want to have growing in the spring. Just plant your seeds in the fall, mark wherever you planted them and then let them grow! There are lots of medicinal herbs that need cold stratification. Check out our blog post on germination requirements here. Today we will highlight three herbs that are powerful allies to have in your garden.

Echinacea is such a beautiful herb to have around. It is a well known herbal medicinal plant and it also has really beautiful flowers! Our variety will germinate around 30% without cold stratification and around 80% if you do take the time to cold stratify it. That is a much more affirming success rate. Sometimes we might wonder why our seeds are not germinating and it can usually just be as simple as finding the optimum conditions for growth. Echinacea can be planted in the fall directly into the garden. You could also plant it in February. I like the idea of planting in the fall because it lets the seeds wake up as soon as they are ready. 

Another plant you might want to try planting in the fall is Nettle. This is one of my favorite herbs to use in the Spring time. So it makes a lot of sense to get your plants going before the Spring. They grow fairly fast once the weather begins to warm. It is super nutritious and used for allergies which makes it the perfect tea for the Spring. You can sow nettle fairly heavily and you will want a large collection of plants to harvest from. We have an indepth post about nettle you can read here.

Lastly, Marshmallow is an easy to grow fun addition for your herb garden. It is really nourishing and moistening. I love the way the soft downy leaves feel and the flowers are so sweet. Sometimes we just grow things because they are cute. Marshmallow is really useful to have on hand too. I wrote about my love for it in a blog post already so if you want to know more about Marshmallow check that out. It can be planted in the fall. The seeds are pretty durable so they do well exposed to the winter elements. 

If you want to plant any of these herbs a good time would be in October-November. This lets you plant them before the ground freezes and is not too soggy. Make sure you mark where you planted your seeds so you can look out for them in the spring. If you are not comfortable direct sowing your seeds. You can cold stratify them in flats of soil placed outside or in your fridge!

Happy Planting!