Is it true that the soil has been so severely depleted of nutrients that it is impossible to grow herbs without chemical fertilizers?
Forests and wildflowers do not need chemical fertilizers to grow. Neither do herbs. Trees drop their leaves in the fall. Year after year, the leaves naturally mulch into fertile compost and, by springtime, the growing cycle begins again. Nature’s fertilizers (compost and horse manure) used in a cultivated garden provide more than enough nutrients for herbs. Large scale farming with chemical fertilizers and pesticides depletes the soil of nutrients. Organic farming returns nutrients to the soil as nature does. Herbs are essentially weeds. They have the ability to survive in most any soil. They also readily return nutrients to the soil so they are beneficial to vegetable plants and other plants that require more nutrition.
