Herbs in Winter

How to Have Herbs at Hand Even in Winter? Store Them for Later Use and Properly Winterize the Rest

Fresh herbs are a treasure in every kitchen – they add flavor to dishes, can be used to prepare healing teas, and many of them have beneficial effects on our health. But what to do when the growing season ends and winter approaches? The solution is simple: preserve herbs for storage and properly winterize perennial plants. This way, you'll have your favorite herbs available year-round.

Why Preserve Herbs?

Preserving herbs allows you to enjoy their aroma and benefits even during months when they don't grow outdoors. Whether you grow basil, parsley, mint, or thyme, there are several proven methods to keep them fresh or preserve them for later use.

How to Preserve Herbs for Winter Storage

1. Drying – The Traditional Method

Drying is one of the oldest and most popular ways to preserve herbs. It's ideal for herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, or marjoram.

How to do it:

  • Harvest herbs in the morning after dew has dried, but before the sun is at its strongest.
  • Tie them in small bundles and hang them upside down in a dry, shaded, and well-ventilated area.
  • Once completely dry (leaves should crumble easily), store them in airtight jars away from light.

Tip: You can also dry herbs in a dehydrator or oven at low temperature (around 40°C).

2. Freezing – Preserves Fresh Flavor

Freezing is an excellent method for herbs that lose their aroma when dried, such as basil, parsley, dill, or chives.

How to do it:

  • Wash and dry the herbs thoroughly.
  • Chop them and place in ice cube trays, cover with water or olive oil, and freeze.
  • Use the frozen cubes directly in cooking – simply add them to soups, sauces, or other dishes.

3. Making Herb Oil or Butter

Another great way to preserve herbs is to make flavored oil or butter. This method works wonderfully with basil, rosemary, thyme, or garlic.

How to do it:

  • Finely chop fresh herbs and mix them with softened butter or oil.
  • Store in the refrigerator (butter) or freezer (for longer storage).
  • Use for spreading on bread, seasoning pasta, or grilling.

4. Making Pesto or Herb Paste

Pesto isn't just for basil – you can make it from parsley, arugula, spinach, or wild garlic. Herb paste can be frozen in small portions and used throughout winter.

Basic recipe:

  • Blend fresh herbs with olive oil, garlic, nuts (pine nuts, walnuts), and parmesan.
  • Store in jars in the refrigerator or freeze in ice cube trays.

How to Properly Winterize Herbs

If you grow perennial herbs in the garden or in pots, it's important to prepare them properly for winter so they survive the cold months and thrive again in spring.

Herbs That Overwinter Outdoors

Some herbs are frost-resistant and can stay outside even in winter. These include:

  • Thyme – withstands frost, but you can protect it with mulch or spruce branches.
  • Sage – hardy, in harsh climates protect roots with straw.
  • Mint – dies back above ground in winter but sprouts again from roots in spring.
  • Rosemary – in milder climates it overwinters outside, in colder regions move it indoors.
  • Chives – frost-resistant, dies back in winter and regrows in spring.

How to protect them:

  • Cover roots with a layer of mulch, straw, or leaves.
  • Potted herbs can be placed against a house wall or covered with protective fabric.

Herbs That Need to Be Brought Indoors

Some herbs won't survive winter outdoors and need to be moved to a warmer location:

  • Basil – sensitive to cold, grow it indoors on a windowsill.
  • Lemon balm – can be brought inside to continue growing.
  • Rosemary (in colder regions) – needs a cool but frost-free place (5–10°C).
  • Laurel – overwinters best in a cool, bright room.

Tip: If you want fresh herbs in winter, grow them indoors on a windowsill – basil, parsley, chives, and mint do well in pots.

Conclusion

With the right preservation and winterization, you can enjoy herbs year-round. Drying, freezing, making oils and pestos – each method has its benefits and allows you to preserve the aroma and beneficial properties of herbs. And if you take proper care of perennial herbs, they'll reward you with a new harvest in spring. So don't let the end of the season catch you unprepared and stock up on herbs for winter!


In summer, herbs are easily available and many cooks get used to adding them as seasoning to dishes or using them as decoration.

What can you do to enjoy herbs in your meals during winter too? There are several solutions. Annual herbs are harvested and the preservation method is chosen according to the intended use. The most common methods include drying, freezing or pickling.


Biennial and perennial plants are divided according to their ability to survive winter outdoors. Frost-resistant herbs just need to be winterized in autumn and wait for spring when they sprout again. More delicate plants need to be transplanted into pots and moved to a frost-free location...

Drying Herbs

Drying herbs is perhaps the most common method of preservation. Tie harvested herb stems into small bunches and hang them in a warm, dry, well-ventilated and dark place.

Drying tip: instead of laundry, hang bunches of herbs on lines in the shade


Never dry herbs in direct sunlight as they would lose their color and fragrance. Harvest herbs when dry and avoid rinsing them with water before drying if possible. Usually it's enough to shake the herbs well.

If necessary, rinse the herbs, but let them dry before tying them into bunches. Inside wet bunches, rotting could occur. For herbs, the rule is: the faster they dry, the better.

If you're drying only parts of plants that cannot be tied into bunches, you'll need to use some kind of base for drying. Drying racks, cloth or large sheets of paper (e.g. food-grade wrapping paper) are suitable. Never use newspapers as a base.

Spread the material to be dried on the base in a thin layer so air can flow between it. Turn and rake through the drying herbs regularly. The conditions for drying are the same as for drying bunches - a dark, airy place with higher temperature.

However, don't overdo it with temperature, the ideal range is approximately 20 - 30 °C. Temperature above 35 °C destroys essential oils that give herbs their characteristic aroma and taste.

Dried herbs are brittle, their stems break, leaves rustle when handled. Store dried herbs in a dry and dark place in jars or cloth bags.

Freezing Herbs

Freezing herbs is the second most commonly used method of preserving them. The most frequently frozen are the tops of root vegetables - parsley and celeriac. Dill, chives, basil, oregano, tarragon and savory are also suitable for freezing.

Before freezing, clean the herbs and remove damaged and rotten leaves. Dirty tops can be washed with cold water. It's best to freeze herbs either chopped into small pieces or prepare "bundles" of herbs directly, which you take out one by one from the freezer.

Frozen herbs take up quite a lot of space in the freezer, so rather smaller portions are frozen. An alternative to freezing is refrigeration. This storage method is only short-term. In the refrigerator, herbs will last about a week.

Preserving Herbs

Herbs are most often preserved in vinegar or oil. Oil is not a very good preservative, herbs in it can brown, spoil if stored incorrectly, and the oil can become cloudy. Therefore, store oil with herbs in a cool, dark place.

Remove the herbs from it after about 14 days, when they have released their aromatic substances into the oil and are no longer needed. You can enhance the oil by adding a piece of dried herbs that do not spoil.

A less known method of preserving herbs is salting. Salted herbs do not lose their color and do not spoil. Most green herbs can be preserved in salt. The most commonly used ratio of salt to herbs is four parts herbs to one part salt.

Herbs preserved in salt are significantly salty, so do not add more salt to dishes to which you have added these herbs. Store herbs preserved in salt in a dry and cool place.

Preparing Herbs for Winter

The life of annual herbs ends with harvest. Biennial or perennial herbs need to be cared for even after harvest so you can harvest them in the next season as well. Hardy herbs are the least demanding.

If you want to have fresh chives or parsley leaves always at hand, separate a piece of the clump and plant it in a pot that you will keep indoors during winter.


Surviving winter is no problem for them in our climatic conditions. Young plants can be protected from frost by piling mulch bark around the plants and covering with a branch from coniferous trees.

Mature plants do not need such protection, but a conifer branch can protect them from the weight of snow.

All types of wild herbs will survive winter outside without problems.

You can safely leave parsley, mint, sage, lemon balm, savory, lavender, lovage, thyme and chives outside.

Less hardy herbs need to be moved to a frost-free location before winter arrives. Carefully dig up herbs planted in beds and transplant them into appropriately sized pots. Herbs grown indoors will be content with temperatures around 10 - 15 °C during winter.

The main problem affecting almost all plants grown indoors is lack of light in winter, which manifests as stretching, asymmetrical and weak growth.

Try to provide your herbs with as much daylight as possible, place them on a south or east-facing window. Rotate the herbs regularly. Herbs don't need much water over winter, reduce watering to a minimum, but make sure the soil never dries out completely.

Overwatering is a common cause of herb death in winter. Don't add any fertilisers to the watering during the winter period.

Herbs that you must definitely bring indoors before winter include bay laurel, rosemary, stevia, lemongrass, oregano and herbs originating from the Mediterranean.

You should also bring indoors or insulate well all herbs grown in pots. Roots in pots are much more sensitive than those in garden soil and are at risk of freezing.

You can grow mint, marjoram, sage, thyme, chives or parsley indoors over winter.

Don't give up your favourite herbs even in winter – dry them, freeze them, salt them or place a pot with fresh herbs in your kitchen.

Written by Lenka Z

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