Creating An Indoor Herb Garden

Creating and maintaining an indoor herb garden or a countertop herb garden will not only provide you with a steady source of fresh homegrown herbs for your fresh food and recipes, but your own indoor herb garden will also fill your home with a beautifully fresh fragrance.

According to research, the best part, believe it or not, is that indoor plants help brighten your mood, reduce your stress, and clean the air!

Indoor Herb Garden Important Tips

Planting herbs indoors is becoming very popular these days. It just brings a natural living and healthy living feeling to your home.

The good news is your favorite herbs are easy to grow indoors, as long as you are starting your new plants off the right way.

The best way and the key to successfully creating and maintaining an indoor herb garden are to understand the requirements of your chosen best herbs while giving your mini garden everything they need and providing the right conditions from the very beginning.

Added bonus is that it is also a family affair – it’s great to teach kids how things grow and how we can use them for our own health and how to have a green thumb.

Check out these tips on care and lighting for growing your herbs indoors as well as other secrets to make sure that your plants are happy, all year round.

Herb Garden Indoors: Pick The Right Soil

When growing fresh herbs indoors, you may want to maximize the drainage. A lot of herbs hate having wet plant roots, even those that grow in more damp conditions.

Add perlite to your potting mix. Choose potting mixes consisting of the base substrate like peat moss, which is the most forgiving medium and has the highest buffering of nutrients and the best ability to hold enough water.

If you want to go the DIY route for your indoor herbs, you can mix one part perlite, compost, and peat moss with a little lime.

Another great choice, is that you can also use a slow-release plant fertilizer, which provides good nutrient levels for your edible plants instead of liquid fertilizer.

Hoffman Horticulture Perlite

Mother Earth Mixed Coco Coir Plus Perlite

Epsoma Organic Perlite

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Provide Strong Light

The more proper sunlight that you can provide for your indoor gardening herbs, the healthier they’ll grow. But did you know that the intensity of light contributes to the flavor they give?

Herbs that grow in bright light or a sunny spot have the best flavor. Good strong light encourages the plants to grow better.

Place your herbs in a bright, sunny windowsill or a sunroom with enough sunlight for at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day. A southern-facing window is the best choice to get enough light.

You can place the pots on a small table directly in front of the window. If you don’t have a table, a suction cup window shelf is also a great way to create a good growing environment for your plants.

If you don’t have a sunny window, you can still provide ample lighting to your plants. You can add an additional light source by using CFL bulbs or a grow lamp. There are also indoor gardening systems with an LED light setup that you can attach to your herb planter.

Roleadro 1000W LED Grow Light With UV & IR

Hydrofarm Agrobrite Fluorescent Grow Light System

Head Growing Light for Indoor Plants
 – I use these:

For Indoor Herb Plants, Maintain A Temperature Between 60 To 70 Degrees

Another important factor to successfully growing herbs indoors is temperature. The ideal temperature is between 65 to 70 degrees, which works well in pretty much any home environment.

When placing the herbs directly next to the window, check if the leaves are touching the glass, they could burn as the glass heats up with the sunlight.

Water Them Slowly And Infrequently

Allow the pots to dry out somewhat in between watering. The soil on top may easily dry out, but that doesn’t mean that the bottom of the pot is dry and doesn’t have enough water.

Test the soil using your fingers. If the soil is dry about two inches below the top, then it is time to water your plants.

You can also water the herbs slowly. If you water too quickly, the water may run straight through the pot and out the drainage holes. Set a regular schedule.

Herbs should not be watered daily. Watering your plants at least two to three times a week is sufficient. This way, you have plenty of water and a good water level for your young plants.

Union 2-Gallon Watering Can with Tulip Design

MyLifeUNIT Plastic Watering Can

Bloem Easy Pour 1.6-Gallon Watering Can

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Use The Best Herb Planter

There are important factors to consider when choosing the correct pots or containers for your herbs.

There are several criteria when choosing the best pot to use:

Drainage

Ensure that the pots have enough drainage. Herbs do not like to be kept in too much water or standing water, so use pots that have adequate and good drainage.

Material

Choose a pot based on the humidity level of your home. The amount of moisture can be controlled by the type of pot you choose.

Clay pots dry out faster while ceramic pots hold in the water. If you live in a drier environment, a ceramic pot is more ideal than a clay container. You can pick these up at your local garden centers.

Saucer

Make sure that there is a saucer holding your pots. You can easily make a mess, or worse, quickly damage a table or surface when watering.

There are several pots that come with an attached saucer or drip trays. You can also purchase saucers for cheap at any dollar store, grocery store, or hardware store.

Full Depth 8-Inch Round Cylinder Pot

Greenaholics 5.2-Inch Cylinder Ceramic Planters with Connected Saucer

5.75″ Plastic Nursery Flower Pots with Pallet

Grow Each Herb Individually

Don’t combine multiple herbs in one container!

Growing multiple herbs is fine if you have a self-contained light system or if you are growing herbs outside or in an outdoor space. However, if you are keeping an indoor herb garden, this practice is a no-no.

For the best results, plant the herbs plants in separate pots to give them more flexibility.

You may also need to rotate the herbs to improve good air circulation or to adjust the amount of full sun and direct sunlight that your different herbs receive.

Plus, growing each of your favorite herbs in separate pots is a good idea since it makes it easier for you to address your culinary herbs needs individually.

Feed The Herbs With A Seaweed Or Fish-Based Fertilizer

Fertilizers made with seaweed extract or fish emulsion are the best types of fertilizers for herbs. They have a higher concentration of nitrogen which promotes strong leafy growth.

• During active growth or summer months, fertilize once a week.
• During slower growth period, reduce this to once a month.

Neptune’s Harvest Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer

Miracle-Gro Indoor Plant Food

Bloom City Premium Cold Pressed Clean Kelp and Seaweed Fertilizer Growing Supplement

Show Your Herbs Love

Many people believe giving your herbs some love improves their growth. Talking to your plants help! You are releasing carbon dioxide that the plants use to convert to food.

Some people say you should gently brush your hands over the top of your herbs and encourage your kids, nieces or nephews to give them a light petting too.

This stimulates the motion of wind blowing and encourages the stems to be stronger.

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Start your indoor herb garden today! Follow these simple steps and you will be surprised at how healthy your plants will be!

Do you have other tips when growing an herb garden inside? Share them in the comments, we’d love to hear them!

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