Gathering herbs from the garden to make and dry herb bundles and herbal bouquets is one of my favorite summer herbal rituals. With each turn of the year’s seasonal wheel, I embrace certain gardening rituals that deepen my connection to the earth, nurturing and preserving the plants I grow. Making herb bundles is an annual practice I’ve been doing for years in spring and summer.
I harvest and make single-herb bundles as well as combined herb bundles with flavors that pair well together. The latter is often called a bouquet garni (French for “garnished bouquet”)—a bundle of herbs usually tied with string and used to flavor soup, stock, and stews.
But I also make bouquet garni for gifts and to use in my own kitchen. It’s the height of summer as I write this, and the herbs in my garden are in their prime and spilling out of the beds. It’s time to gather, bundle, and dry herbs.
Crafting Combined Herb Bundles
First, before gathering herbs, decide what you’re going to harvest and which herbs you’ll be combining together. I have my favorite combinations that I make based on the types of dishes they would go well in.
Here are a few of my favorites for combined herb bundles:
- Holiday Flavors: Sage, thyme, and rosemary bundle. This one is great for any savory recipe, but it makes me think of holiday dishes like chicken and dressing.
- Italian Seasoning Bundle: Do you have a tomato sauce recipe you make with your garden tomatoes? Maybe a friend or family member makes homemade marinara. An Italian seasoning bouquet would be perfect for that. This year I had basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme to use. Some years I have marjoram, which I love in my homegrown Italian seasoning blend. What stands out in this one is the basil and oregano, so I use several bunches of those two compared to one or two sprigs of the other herbs.
- Tea Bundle: If you or someone you know loves herbal tea, you can grow your own herbal tea garden and really get creative with making tea blends and herbal tea bouquets. My favorite combination is peppermint, lemon balm, and tulsi basil.
If I’m planning on gifting these to be used in food such as a pot roast, or if I am going to submerge them in a sauce or chicken stock, then I tie them up with butcher’s twine, also known as cooking twine or kitchen twine. Butcher’s twine is heat-resistant and food-safe and is the same as what you would use to tie up roasts or secure a stuffed chicken or turkey. Just remove these little bundles and compost them before serving.
Here are more ideas for herbal combinations:
Culinary Bouquet Garni Combinations
- Classic French: Thyme, parsley, bay leaf.
- Provencal Blend: Rosemary, thyme, marjoram.
- Poultry Stock: Sage, thyme, rosemary, chamomile.
- Herbes de Provence: Savory, fennel, basil.
- Robust Roast: Thyme, rosemary, garlic chives, bay leaf.
- Simple Mediterranean: Rosemary, thyme, bay leaf.
- Fish Favorite: Dill, tarragon, lemon balm.
- Lamb Lover’s: Mint, rosemary, thyme.
Herbal Tea Bundle Combinations
- Calming Blend: Chamomile, lavender, lemon balm.
- Digestive Aid: Peppermint, fennel, lemon verbena.
- Relaxation Blend: Lemon balm, lavender, tulsi basil.
- Immune Booster: Echinacea, peppermint, lemon balm.
- Stress Relief: Lemon balm, chamomile, peppermint.
- Refreshing Citrus: Lemon verbena, lemon balm, peppermint.
- Sleepy Time: Chamomile, tulsi basil, lavender.
- Cool Mint: Peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm.
- Floral Delight: Rose petals, lavender leaves or flowers, lemon verbena.
- Detox Tea: Dandelion, peppermint, lemon balm.
Herbs for Pets
Herb bundles make great gifts, but don’t forget to share the love with your four-legged friends. My dog, Scarecrow gets to eat her fill of tomatoes she steals off the vines when she thinks I’m not looking. But the cats are indoor kitties so they don’t get to enjoy the garden. Since cats love catnip, I grow lots of it for our two cat boys, Frisco and Jett and for friends who have cats. I like to leave little bundles for them to play with and rub their cheeks on.
Not all herbs are safe for cats, however. Before providing any plants to your pets, please ask your vet which ones are nontoxic.
Creating Single-Herb Bundles
In addition to doing bundles of herb combinations, I also harvest single herbs to dry and preserve for later use. For routine culinary use, it’s perfect to just walk out to your garden and pick some fresh herbs to use right away. However, many herbs are not accessible year-round or may no longer be useful once they’ve gone to seed or tolerated a whole summer of insect damage. At some point, it’s necessary to gather large amounts of the herbs you grow to preserve for use through winter. For that, I harvest and dry single herb bundles for long-term storage.
Choosing the Right Time to Harvest
Spring and summer are when herbs are in active growth and really coming into their prime. If the leaves are what you want, just note that several herbs are prone to bolting in hot weather. Those include cilantro, parsley, chervil, and dill to name a few.
Get those leaves before they bolt, then once they go to seed, save the seeds to grow again, or use them for spice. I collect and save coriander (cilantro seed) for my spice collection and dill seed to use in pickles. Basil also quickly goes to seed when temperatures rise. So pinch those flowers regularly to keep it producing leaves.
You can also grow slow-bolting cultivars. I grow Everleaf Emerald Towers basil that holds off flower production up to 12 weeks longer than other types of basil. I’ve had those Everleaf plants go through triple digits in summer and only make one or two flowers. I now use it in my homegrown Italian seasoning blend.
Chives also flower in early spring, but chive blossoms are wonderful so use those while they’re in the garden. And chive leaves are still useful after it flowers. One of my spring herbal rituals is making chive blossom vinegar.
I also harvest herbs in late fall before the first frost. Whatever is still growing and is healthy and hasn’t gone to seed, which is usually sage, rosemary, and a few others, I am collecting in one last big harvest to dry and store for winter.
It is said that the optimal time of day for harvesting herbs to store is in the morning after dew has dried to prevent the herbs from molding. But it’s also best to harvest before the sunlight has affected them. Supposedly the oils are more concentrated in the morning. However, it’s almost impossible for me to wait until all of the dew has dispersed.
First of all, I have to work, and second, by the time the sun comes out and dries off the dew in summer, it’s way too hot and humid in my region to be outside for long periods. So I may harvest herbs while they have some dew on them, but I’m going to wash them and then let them dry off a bit before I bundle them anyway. Don’t get too worried about the time of day to harvest. There were years when I couldn’t get out to my garden to harvest until almost sundown, and I still had flavorful dried herbs and spices—much more potent than what you buy at the store.
Essential Tools for Harvesting
To cut herbs, I love using a pair of vintage bonsai garden shears I found on Etsy, but any clean, sharp scissors, micro snips, or a harvest knife will do. I also like collecting herbs in a shallow harvest basket where I can lay them out in separate piles. To tie the bundles, you can use jute twine or even a rubber band. Rubber bands actually work well because as the stems dry and shrink, the rubber bands can contract. I use food-grade butcher’s twine if the bouquet will be used in cooking.
Step-by-Step Harvesting Process
Prepare for harvest by cleaning your tools and surface area. I pull a small table out and work with the herbs right there in the garden in the shade or in the cool of the morning.
Choose healthy plants and cut the top growth to encourage regrowth. Before tying, remove any leaves that look diseased, discolored, or damaged by insects. Collect herbs in a shallow basket and keep the varieties separate and labeled if needed. I can identify all the herbs I grow by sight and scent, but if you’re a beginner, you may want to make note of the varieties of each.
Wash thoroughly to remove all dirt, webs, and insects. I like to do this by submerging the plant material in water, swishing them around, draining off the dirty water, and repeating the process. Then I pat them dry with paper towels being careful not to bruise the leaves. Shorter stems can be dried in a salad spinner. You can also set them under a fan until they’re no longer dripping water.
Making the Bundles
After washing and drying, arrange herbs together with similar lengths. Snip off some of the stems if needed to even them up. Combine your herbs that you will be using in bouquet garni or separate out a few branches of each kind for the single-herb bundles.
Removing the leaves from the bottoms of the stems can make it easier to tie them together, but it’s not necessary. Bundle the branches together on top of your cut string or twine. Wrap the string and tie tightly together, wrapping around the bundle several times. Remember that as the stems dry, they will be losing water and shrinking, which can cause them to fall out of the tied string if it’s not tight enough.
Cut Flowers in Herb Bouquets
While I’m out in the garden making herb bundles in spring or summer, the flowers are blooming too. I’ll often take the opportunity to create bouquets that combine cut flowers from the garden with herbs for fragrance, foliage filler, and blooms.
For example, I use herbs like yarrow or mugwort in bloom instead of baby’s breath. These bouquets are beautiful, aromatic, and a wonderful way to showcase the bounty of the garden. It’s another great way to work with the summer herbs.
Drying Herbs
The ideal conditions for drying herbs are in a cool, dark, well-ventilated space free of dust. In dusty places, enclose the bundles in paper bags with holes poked in them for ventilation. If I have mine hanging in an enclosed room, I’ll run the ceiling fan or point a small fan toward them for air circulation and proper drying.
I also like to hang bundles in my kitchen under my cabinets where I can snip a few leaves off for cooking. An herb drying hanger also works well to hang bundles up out of the reach of my cats. Herb bundles are also decorative, and I love having them hanging around the house.
Different herb varieties have different water content, so the time it takes to dry completely before storing varies by the herb. For example, lemon verbena, thyme, and rosemary dry faster than sage, parsley, and cilantro. Drying times also depend on several factors such as humidity, temperature, airflow, leaf and stem thickness, and the drying method being used. The time of day and stage of growth at which herbs are harvested can also influence their moisture content and drying time.
Storing Dried Herbs
Regardless, the water content in the plant material has to be removed completely before storing. You’ll know they’re ready for storage when they’re brittle enough to break easily between your fingers. Ideally, herbs will be dry but will still have retained most of their color, aroma, and flavor. That’s why it’s important to keep them out of direct sunlight.
You can store the bundles of herbs hanging as they are and use them as needed. I also like to take them apart, remove the leaves, and store the leaves whole in small batches in corked spice jars, upcycled jars, or these paper tea bags.
Storing the leaves whole rather than breaking them down in a blender or spice grinder preserves the flavor longer. However, if you’re making an herbal blend for cooking or a blend of tea herbs, go ahead and break everything up into pieces to mix together.
After you strip the leaves, keep those stems. They are often very flavorful. I use them to infuse chicken stock or bundle them up to use as fragrant fire starters.
Preserving the Taste of Summer
Gathering and drying herbs in herb bundles and bouquets in summer is an enchanting and practical way to preserve your garden’s bounty for year-round use. With the right combinations and techniques, you can create herb bundles and bouquet garni that enhance your cooking and teas. Enjoy the process and share your herbal creations with friends, family, and even your pets.
References and Resources
- Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use
- Cooking with Herbs and Spices: The Complete Guide To Aromatic Ingredients And How To Use Them, With Over 200 Recipes
- Herbal Rituals by Judith Berger
