How to Grow Herbs Regeneratively

At Meeting House Farm, we approach herb farming through a regenerative and biodynamic lens. While it’s our philosophical approach, it's also deeply practical. We're focused on building soil health, supporting pollinators, and increasing biodiversity, while also making our herbs better and our farm more resilient.

Whether you're new to regenerative practices or already thinking this way, growing herbs offers a unique opportunity. Unlike many vegetable crops that pull nutrients from the soil, many herbs actually give back, making them ideal for farms focused on long-term soil health. Here's how we think about growing herbs regeneratively, and how you can apply these principles on your own farm.

Start With Soil: The Foundation of Everything

There's a quote from Bruno Follador, a Brazilian compost expert I’ve learned from, that guides how we approach farming here at Meeting House Farm: "Soil is the ground of possibility for life to unfold."

Healthy soil isn't just dirt, it's a living ecosystem. When your soil is thriving, your plants are healthier, more nutrient-rich, and more resilient to pests and disease. That means less work for you, better products for your customers, and lower input costs.

Regenerative herb farming starts with these core soil practices:

1. Compost: The Best Fertilizer

We rely heavily on compost to build soil fertility. Our compost includes plant material from the farm, kitchen scraps, and, when we can get it, animal manure (we use our chicken manure and source composted cow manure from a local farm).

If you want to go a step further, you can add biodynamic "preps" to your compost pile. These are specific herbs such as dandelion, valerian, oak bark, yarrow, nettle, and chamomile that speed decomposition and add micronutrients. If they aren’t available from growing them on your farm, you can order them from places like the Josephine Porter Institute.

But even basic compost, made from what you already have on your land, can be transformative. It feeds soil biology, improves structure, and provides slow-release nutrients that synthetic fertilizers can't match.

2. Feed Your Mycorrhizae  

Mycorrhizal fungi are the unsung heroes of healthy soil. These fungi attach to plant roots and extend networks of hyphae throughout the soil, helping plants access water and nutrients far beyond their root reach. 

Here's the key: tilling destroys these mycorrhizal networks. When you flip and disturb the soil, you're killing the fungi that make your plants healthier. We practice no-till farming to protect these networks. Instead of tilling, we use a cardboard layering method to create new beds. Here’s how we do it:

• Mow existing vegetation

• Lay down cardboard (overlapping 6 inches)

• Add 6 inches of compost

• Top with 2-3 inches of ramial wood chips (from deciduous tree branches)

• Plant directly through the layers ideally after 6 months

This method suppresses weeds, feeds soil biology, and protects mycorrhizal fungi, all without machinery or chemicals. It requires a little more patience but works beautifully, ideally after six months.

3. Use Ramial Wood Chips (But Only for Perennials)

Wood chips aren't just mulch - they're food for mycorrhizal fungi. But, you have to use the right kind and apply them correctly. We use only ramial wood chips, which are chips from the branches of deciduous trees (oak, maple, birch, etc.). Avoid pine, spruce, or cedar, which feed different fungi that can actually inhibit plant growth.

Apply the chips 2-3 inches deep around perennial herbs like echinacea, lemon balm, skullcap, and arnica. The wood chips feed the fungi, suppress weeds, and slowly break down into rich organic matter.

Don't use wood chips around annuals. If wood chips get mixed into the soil, which happens when you're rotating annual crops, they steal nitrogen as they decompose. For annual beds, use straw mulch instead.

4. Overwinter Your Roots

This is a simple practice that makes a big difference: leave your plant roots in the ground over winter. Mycorrhizal fungi hibernate in plant roots. If you pull all your roots out in the fall, even from annuals, you're removing the fungi's winter home, and many will die. When spring comes, there are fewer fungi to colonize your new plants.

Instead, cut annual plants at soil level and leave the roots to decompose in place. The fungi survive, and your spring crops benefit from established networks.

Use Herbs to Support Your Farm

One of the benefits of herb farming is that the crops themselves can become tools for your farm, such as for fertility and pest management.

Herb-Based Fertility: Nettle and Comfrey Teas

Nettle and comfrey are packed with micronutrients and silica. We use them to make fermented plant teas that feed both soil and crops. Here’s how to make a simple fermented plant tea:

• Fill a 5-gallon bucket with fresh nettle or comfrey leaves

• Cover with rainwater

• Let sit for 2 weeks, when it ferments and smells strong you’ll know it’s ready

• Dilute and apply to plant roots

This provides micronutrients and supports plant vitality without any purchased inputs.

Until summer solstice, we also use kelp and fish emulsion weekly on seedlings and transplants. After solstice, we switch to plant-based ferments. It's a rhythm that works for us and keeps plants healthy throughout the season.

Herb-Based Pest and Disease Management

Instead of reaching for chemical sprays, we use herbs to protect other herbs. These same techniques can be used to protect other types of crops. 

For ants and aphids we use a wormwood tea, and a yarrow tea for powdery mildew. Simply steep fresh plants in hot water, cool, and spray on affected plants. For powdery mildew, you might also try a yarrow tea. These teas won't eliminate every problem overnight, but they support plant health and keep issues manageable without compromising soil biology or beneficial insects.

Double Down with Cover Crops

Cover cropping is one of the most powerful regenerative practices available to herb farmers, and certain cover crops double as high-value herb crops. 

Milky oats are my favorite, they:

• Fix nitrogen and add micronutrients to the soil

• Provide biomass and prevent erosion

• Winter-kill in most zones, leaving mulch for spring planting

• Harvest as a medicinal herb that sells consistently

Red clover is another excellent dual-purpose crop, it:

• Fixes nitrogen

• Improves water retention

• Breaks up compacted soil

• Produces flowers that sell well for culinary and medicinal use

Cover crops provide a constant root source for mycorrhizal fungi, maintain soil structure, add organic matter, and reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers, all while producing harvestable crops that can generate income.

Try Planting With Lunar Rhythms  

This is where biodynamic farming gets a little mystical, but hear me out: the moon impacts crops just like it impacts ocean tides.

The basic idea is that root crops grow best when planted during the waning moon (when the gravitational pull is toward the earth). Leaf and flower crops grow best when planted during the waxing moon (when the pull is upward). You can use a biodynamic planting calendar (available from Josephine Porter Institute or the Farmer's Almanac to experiment with this.

I won't claim it's magic, but I will say that many farmers who try it notice a difference. If you're curious, plant half a bed by lunar timing and half without, and see what happens.

Why Regenerative Practices Matter for Herb Farmers

Regenerative practices aren't just good for the earth, they're good for your farm's economics and resilience. Healthier soil means:

• Healthier plants with higher nutrient density, which buyers increasingly care about

• Lower input costs through less purchased fertilizer and pest control products

• Improved drought resilience from better soil structure that holds more water

• Stronger plants that require less intervention, reducing labor costs

And for many herbs, regenerative practices actually enhance their medicinal properties. Herbs grown in living, biologically active soil have higher levels of the compounds that make them valuable in the first place.

Get Started from Where You Are

You don't have to do everything at once. Regenerative farming isn't all or nothing. Pick one or two practices that make sense for your farm:

• Start a compost pile (or improve the one you have)

• Try a no-till bed using cardboard and compost

• Plant a cover crop of milky oats or red clover

• Make a nettle or comfrey tea

• Stop pulling roots in the fall

Each practice you add further builds on the others. Over time, your soil will improve, your workload will decrease, and your herbs will be better for it.

Final Thoughts

At Meeting House Farm, regenerative practices aren't a separate project, they're how we farm. They've made our work more sustainable, our herbs more valuable, and our land healthier year after year. 

You don't need to be perfect. Start small. Experiment. See what works on your land. Your soil is the foundation. Everything else grows from there.