The way you harvest and dry your herbs depends greatly on what your planned usage for the herbs are. There are a few general rules that should be followed; however, if you are planning on using the herbs for medicinal, culinary, or aromatic reasons. Remember if you are drying herbs to use in floral arrangements to be particularly careful of the flowers.

The best time to collect and harvest any herb is in the morning after any dew has dried in the sun. The time of year will greatly depend upon the use. If you are looking for the scent of a particular herb, you want to snip the leaves before the herb flowers. If you are looking for the flower to harvest, you want to cut them before they actually bloom. The drying process will not impede the actual opening of the bloom. For seeds, you want to collect them before they crack open and fall off to propagate.

There are several methods of drying whatever the part of the herb you are looking to use. A simple method that works is to lay a screen out in a dry sunny location and place the stems of herb in a single layer across it. Turn the herbs at least once a day until they are dry. Don't have a screen, cover a baking sheet with a double layer of paper towel and lay the herbs on it. Works just as well.

If you are harvesting a large quantity of herbs, you may wish to use a different method than the screen. One way is to tie up the stems with a rubber band (the herb stems will shrink as they dry) and hang them in a warm dark location with plenty of air movement. If you have a dust issue try poking holes in a brown paper bag and place over the herbs (be careful not to touch the flowers) and hang for about two weeks.

Drying seeds, wrap a brown paper bag (no holes this time) around the stems of the herb and hang the bag so that the seeds will fall into the bottom of the bag. It will take about two weeks for all the seeds to fall.

Need the herbs dried now. There is always the oven. Spread a single layer of herbs on a cookie sheet and place in the oven (set the oven on the lowest possible temperature setting). Leave the oven on and turn the herbs at least once a day (twice is better). They will be dry (depending on the type of herb) within hours.