Chamomile

THIS BRIGHT HERB IS EASY TO GROW.

- LISA MUNNIKSMA

If you made it through the past year without feeling like you could use a cup of chamomile tea, you may be an outlier.

Chamomile is known as an herb that may help us sleep, lift our moods and soothe our nervous digestive systems.

A cup of chamomile tea in the evening is a lovely thing, as is seeing its small, perky flowers in the garden. These flowers are a welcome sight to many beneficial insects, too, including pollinators.

HOW TO GROW CHAMOMILE

Whether growing German or Roman chamomile, garden prep and preferences are the same. The plant is an annual in Kentucky that frequently reseeds itself, so I plant it in my perennial bed and let it do its thing.

You might also put yours in a container or an ornamental bed nearer to your house. Chamomile is delicate looking and blooms all summer long. So it's a nice plant to come home to. To start, seed chamomile indoors a month and a half or two months before your last frost. It's a tricky one to germinate — which makes little sense given its reseeding tendencies — so seed more than you think you need the first year.