Your Indoor Herb Garden

Not much room for herb gardening? You can always keep a small herb garden on the windowsill of any sunny window in your house or apartment. Make sure that the window is going to provide plenty of sunlight. If your window faces south, that’s even better. If you don’t have a nice window or location, you can purchase a grow light. This is more expensive than light, but whatever works for your herb plants is best!

This may be obvious to you, but don’t put your herb plants too close to your heater or heating/air conditioning vent because heat as well as hot and cool air will kill your herbs.

I gave up on bringing my herbs inside during winter long ago because I never really had good luck. If you’re like me, you will drop by the greenhouse or grocery store to get the herb plants you will need over the winter. Just because I don’t love mixing my herbs does not mean that you can’t do it though.

Bringing herbs indoors in the winter is a large change for them—some get wiry or spindly. You’ll know that they have done this because they will grow tall without getting very many leaves. You’ll probably need to keep the top cut back to encourage it to become like a small bush.

With any plant, you’ll want to match the container with the herb and make sure that it can grow in your indoor herb garden. Many plants have a number of types and with some research; you will find the one that can do best in your garden.

Here are some good herb plants to start within your indoor garden. Not only can these bring a fantastic smell to your home, they have a lot of uses.

• Sage: Just smelling the pungent aroma and silver leaves of the sage plant makes my mouth water. It is an excellent herb for your indoor garden. You can always clip a few leaves to add to your meal. Now that’s sage advice!

• Thyme: With all the flavors and kinds, you may have a hard thyme choosing the right one for your indoor garden. There’s also the added benefit that it also smells great growing in your kitchen.

• Mustard: If you like spice, you will love mustard. There are a lot of different varieties of mustard, but keep in mind that the foliage and seeds are full of flavor. You will need to cook the leaves thoroughly before eating because they have a texture. The typical mustard herb will get rather large, so be sure that when you go to purchase your mustard plant, be sure that you purchase a smaller type.

• Angelica: This plant is phenomenal in its appearance and its course texture makes it a unique addition to your inside herb garden. Trim off a few stemmed blooms for your floral arrangements. Like mustard, it can also get pretty high unless you raise a kind that you can maintain inside.

You will want to use a pot that allows for drainage. If you do not, your herb will drown and die. But be careful where you put your pots (you do not want them peeing all over you countertops, window sills or kitchen table). All my potted herbs sit on a tray on my kitchen table. The tray keeps them together and catches the draining water. Using the tray makes it a cinch to turn the plants too so that they can get good sun.

Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.

Here is more information on Mini Herb Garden. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.