Grow an Herb Garden Indoors All Year Round

You can grow an herb garden indoors and reap some neat benefits. Have you ever noticed that when you grow something yourself how good it really tastes? That is probably because you have spent a lot of time and effort to cultivate it and it is the freshest you can get when you harvest it right from your own home. Many people have thought about putting in an herb garden, but they never take the first step, thinking I do not know anything about herb gardening.

That is one neat thing about growing an herb garden indoors. You cannot hardly go wrong, because many of the herbs are just so easy to grow even if you do not have a green thumb. By growing an herb garden indoors you can reap the rewards of fresh herbs all year long.

My first attempt at growing an herb was planting basil in my backyard. Boy, was that an experience! This plant grew to a height of 3½ feet tall. If I can do that on my first attempt, then you should have a go at it too. I will give you some suggestions about what you can grow in an herb garden indoors all year round.

The first thing you will want to consider is the location for you're indoor herb garden. The best location to grow herbs in your home is near or in windows ledges with a western or southern exposure. Based on your current budget you can select some pots that will work well with your spacing requirements.

Herbs prefer a good well drained soil mix. You should strive for a mix of about two parts potting soil and one part sand. In place of sand you can also use perlite so that the soil remains slightly fluffy and will not pack down too much. To keep a good balance on the drainage you will want to add about an inch of gravel in the bottom of the pot, or you can also collect some small stones, which work equally as well.

When you are selecting you're pots, it is best to determine what types of herbs you want to grow in you're indoor herb garden. Basically you can divide most herbs into the three categories of growing sizes of small, medium and large. You can grow marjoram, cilantro, oregano and thyme in 6-inch pots. An 8-inch pot can handle herbs such as mint, basil, parsley and chives. For the really big herbs such as lavender, sage and rosemary go with a 12-inch post.

You can easily start an herb garden indoors with seeds or if you are squeamish to try seeds then go check out herbs at the local nursery. Herbs can be purchased inexpensively and it will give you a good head start to getting your herb garden well established. Remember there is another advantage to growing an herb garden indoors all year round and that is you will have some nice green spots of color in your home when everything gets a bit dreary during the winter months.

If you want to grow herbs all year round indoors, primarily for cooking purposes, some ideal plants to try are mint, rosemary, chives, oregano, basil, thyme, sage and parsley. One of the best turkey stuffing I ever made was fixed with fresh herbs picked right out of my garden that morning. There is definitely something to be said for using fresh herbs as opposed to herbs that have been purchased in the spice center of a store.

Storing methods for herbs is more of a personal choice. You can easily dry them or they can even be frozen depending upon your own preference. One method that worked well for drying my basil was to attach a rope under the last shelf in the pantry to the walls. To attach the basil cuttings I just clipped a clothes pin around the stem of the basil and the rope and let them hang upside down to dry.

The pantry is a great place to dry herbs because there is no sunlight and it is relatively cool. If you are planning to dry herbs be sure to grow a large quantity. It is surprising how much fresh herbs compact down once they are dried. Growing an herb garden indoors all year round is fun, easy and mighty tasty!