Where to Begin with a Medicinal Garden?

🌿 Caring for yourself with plants isn’t just trendy — it’s ancestral.

By Andrée Noye, MA, Clinical Herbalist. Reading Time: 3 minutes

A person carefully prepares and dries herbs on a mesh screen, surrounded by fresh lavender and marigolds, in a serene garden setting.

My grandfather in Québec used to tend to our whole village with herbs from the garden and surrounding forests and meadows. People came from all around Rawdon with cuts, fevers, heartbreaks. It wasn’t rare back then, it was how folks got by.

Somewhere along the way, that knowledge got quiet. Our relationship with medicine changed. But tending a few healing plants, even just a windowsill's worth, reconnects you to something deeper: your own rhythms, your own body, and the wisdom that lives in the land.

Conventional medicine has its place; and a very important one. But it doesn’t always teach us how to listen to the early whispers from within, or how to take care of ourselves in everyday ways.

That’s where herbalism comes in. It’s not about rejecting science. It’s about reclaiming our role in our own health.

Here are five tried-and-true medicinal plants we love growing at Airmid’s Healing Gardens and ones you can grow at home, too.

🌼 Calendula officinalis – Calendula

For skin that needs a little love, calendula is a classic. We use it as a whole flower infusion, or make a solar-infused oil for dry skin and minor scars. Internally, it soothes digestive inflammation with surprising grace.

It blooms generously through the season if you keep harvesting. Calendula loves sun and does well in containers or open soil.

Calendula • Sun-loving • Annual • Easy to grow

💛 Hypericum perforatum – St. John’s Wort

Often misunderstood, this plant shines in the darker months. Traditionally used to uplift mood, it’s also a powerful ally for nerve-related discomfort both topically and internally.

A bushy grower with bright yellow flowers around the summer solstice, it thrives in poor soil and wild corners. Note: interacts with certain medications, including antidepressants.

St John's Wort • Full sun • Hardy to Zone 3 • Perennial 📷 Herbal Academy

🌿 Salvia officinalis – Garden Sage

Sage is more than a kitchen herb. It's been used to ease coughs, sore throats, and even menopausal hot flashes. It’s aromatic, resilient, and beautiful in bloom.

Does well in pots or garden beds. A favourite of bees.

Sage Sun • to part shade • Hardy to Zone 3 • Perennial 📷 Herbal Academy

✨ Matricaria recutita – German Chamomile

Gentle and widely known, chamomile calms the nervous system and the digestive tract alike. Its sweet aroma is familiar to many, but the plant itself is a wonder to grow, airy, feathery, and full of life.

Short bloom period but self-seeds freely.

German Chamomile • Sun-loving • Annual • Delicate yet strong 📷 Herbal Academy

⚠️ Note from the apothecary: If you have ragweed allergies, try with caution.

🤍 Tanacetum parthenium – Feverfew

This daisy-like beauty has long been used for headaches and menstrual tension. Bitter and bright, it also supports digestion when taken before meals.

Flowers from midsummer into fall. Easygoing but prefers a spot in the ground over pots.

Feverfew • Sun to part shade • Hardy to Zone 5 • Perennial 📷 Herbal Academy

It’s hard to stop at five — plants are generous like that.

But if this stirs something in you, know that you don’t have to figure it all out alone. A local, trained herbalist can help you choose what fits your body, your garden, and your life.

Here at Airmid’s, we believe herbalism isn’t just a practic, Caring for yourself with plants isn’t just trendy — it’s ancestral. it’s a return. To the land. To tradition. And to yourself.

In light,