Growing Herbs Indoors

Growing herbs indoors is a wonderful way to garden year-round. Indoor herb gardens are also terrific for people who love to garden but don't have space outside because they live in an apartment or condominium.

Fortunately growing herbs indoors is easy, and they're generally low-maintenance. Here are some quick tips to get you started.

1. First of all you need to know which herbs are the best to grow indoors. Some favorites include: basil, sage, rosemary, oregano, dill, chives, fennel and parsley. Choose the ones you like best and buy the seeds or plants to start your indoor herb garden today! Just be sure to purchase your herb seeds or plants from reliable sources.

2. Some items you'll need are, of course, your herbs, and also some high-quality compost and containers. Small terra cotta pots that are approximately six inches in diameter at the top and are six to twelve inches deep are perfect for growing herbs. You can also use long, narrow containers, which allow you to plant several different types of herbs in one container. This type of container also has the advantage of fitting windowsills nicely.

3. To plant your herbs, you want to put a layer of two to three inches in the bottom of the pot or container. Position the herb seeds or plants and then finish filling them up with the compost. You want to leave about one inch at the top of the pot or container to make watering simple.

4. Now, find a sunny spot. Herbs do need quite a bit of sunlight, around five hours a day, but you want to be careful not to place your herb garden containers where the plants will experience extreme temperature shifts, such as close to a stove or radiator. If you don't have a place where your indoor herb garden can get plenty of sunshine, you may want to purchase an indoor plant light. These are generally inexpensive and well worth the price when growing delicious herbs indoors.

5. Keep the plants in your indoor herb garden moist. You don't want to get carried away and over water because herbs don't like to sit in soggy soil, but the dirt should always be damp when you touch it. To keep it that way, especially if the air in your home or apartment is extremely dry, you should mist your indoor herb garden plants daily.

6. Get your children involved! An indoor herb garden is a terrific way to introduce children to gardening in a way that isn't overwhelming or too difficult. They'll be thrilled to watch seeds grow into plants that they can actually eat!

Once your indoor herb garden is thriving you do want to use them, and the great thing is that the more often you cut the herbs, the more they'll grow. So go ahead! Perk up your homemade pesto or spaghetti sauce with that oh, so fresh basil. Season your chicken with some straight-from-the-indoor-herb-garden rosemary. Herb gardening is a satisfying way to garden and improve your cooking at the same time!