Indoor Herb Gardens

It may be cooling off outside, maybe even freezing, but do not despair. Keep your love of herbs and gardening skills going throughout the fall and winter by creating an indoor herb garden.

Materials Needed:

4 inch pots with saucers (one for each herb)
medium to light weight potting soil
balanced organic fertilizer (5-5-5 or 10-10-10)
Herbs (seeds for annuals, plants or cuttings for perennials)
plastic wrap
labels

Choose Your Site

Herb plants need plenty of light, so this must be your first consideration. Select a sunny south-facing window if possible. If a sunny window is not available, supplement with plant lights. A large assortment of fixtures and bulb sizes are available at reasonable costs. Shop lights are available in two to four feet lengths, and clip-on lights will accommodate the incandescent style grow lights. Check your local home improvement store.

Planting

Plant seeds directly into the four inch pots. Follow the directions on seed packets for planting depth. (See my past article: "Growing Herbs From Seed; Buying and Planting Plants", February 13, 1998). Cover pots with a little plastic wrap until germination, then remove plastic. Thin plants to the strongest one and fertilize when they get two sets of true leaves. For perennials, of course they can also be started from seed, but seeding with this method should be started months if not a year ahead of time. For perennials indoors instantly, dig up pieces of plant with roots and plant in a four inch pot. Get them accustomed to less light by placing in a shady spot for one week, then bring indoors. Bringing outside herbs indoors is more of a challenge and you may experience plant death. If the herbs cannot acclimate themselves to indoor conditions. Another way to get indoor perennials is to purchase at a garden center or order through the mail. These plants are used to indoor conditions and should survive better. Don't forget to label all your plants.

Temperature and Moisture

Generally, ideal temperatures for most herbs is 60-70 degrees F (15-21 C) for the day, 50-65 degrees F (10-18 C at night. This is fairly flexible, but most plants do like around a 10 degree F drop in temperature at night. After watering each plant thoroughly, let them dry almost completely before watering again. Your watering schedule will depend on the type of heating you have and the humidity level. Caution: if using clay pots, your plants will dry out much faster! Be prepared to water more often.

Sites

Here are some very helpful sites with articles and hints for indoor herb gardening:

National Gardening Association "Growing Herbs Indoors: Newcomers and Old Favorites to

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