The best way to start your first medicinal herb garden is to dig right in without too much hemming or hawing, and just grow!
In general, medicinal herbs can do well in a wide range of soils, and rarely need much fertilizer. In fact, some people say that the rockier and less fertile the soil is, the more potent and resilient a medicine you will harvest. That doesn’t apply to every herb, but I have found it to be true with yarrow ( Achillea millefolium), lavender ( Lavandula angustifolia), rosemary ( Rosmarinus officianalis), and St. John’s Wort ( Hypericum perforatum) as well as some others. The best way to start your first medicinal herb garden is to dig right in without too much hemming or hawing, and just grow!