How to Grow an Indoor Herb Garden

Don’t despair if you want a nice herb garden but you don’t have the time and space for a big garden plot. Many herbs are hardy and easy to grow in containers, so you can make your own herb garden indoors. Not only will this supply you with herbs for cooking, tea, and crafts; your indoor herb garden will beautify your home and enhance the indoor air quality.

Here are some tips on how to get started.

1. Choose Your Spot

Bear in mind that most herbs enjoy sunshine, at least three to four hours a day. So a sunny spot is ideal. If you don’t have a sunny spot, don’t worry – you can choose shade-tolerant herbs and/or rig up a fluorescent light to augment the light from your window(s).

If you like, you can purchase or make a rack or open shelf for your herbs, which can come in especially handy if you need to move your garden from one sunny window to another. Make sure you have a rubber tub or other protection under whatever set-up you choose, so that the floor, table, and so forth won’t get doused with water when you give your garden a drink.

2. Choose Your Herbs

Herbs that grow well in pots include the following:

* Parsley (can tolerate some shade)
* Lemon balm (shade-tolerant)
* Mints (shade-tolerant)
* Basil (sun-loving)
* Thyme (sun-loving)
* Chives (can tolerate some shade)
* Oregano (can tolerate some shade)

There are others, too. When you go to buy your plants from a local nursery, you can ask them what other herbs do well indoors.

3. Choose Your Containers

Herbs are usually not too picky, but it pays to know something about the root structure of the herbs you want to grow. Thyme, for instance, has a much shallower root system than lemon balm. So choose your containers based on the growth habits of the herbs. Just make sure every container has adequate drainage. And when in doubt, err on the size of size – it’s better to have a pot that seems too big than one that’s too small.

4. Plant Your Herbs

Once you have your plants home, you’ll want to plant them in the containers you’ve chosen. Place potting soil into the bottom of each container, then set the herb carefully down into the pot and fill the rest of the space with soil. Water thoroughly after planting, and keep the herbs out of direct sun for a day or two. Then put them in their sunny spot and watch them grow!

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