Herbs & Gardens

This collection is about the plants themselves: garden sage, rosemary, lavender, mugwort, cedar, sweetgrass, and the many other aromatics people have dried and burned for scent and ceremony. You'll find profiles that cover how each plant grows, how it smells on the ember, and — importantly — whether it can be sourced ethically or is under harvest pressure in the wild. Our guidance leans hard toward growing and drying your own. Most aromatic herbs are easy garden plants, and a homegrown bundle sidesteps the sustainability and cultural problems that come with commercially wildcrafted material. Where we discuss buying, we explain what to look for on a label and which plants we think you should not buy at all.