Grow herbs indoors: buy a herb growing kit

If you live in an apartment without a garden, it's still possible to grow edible plants indoors. The best place to start is with herbs - not only do they look attractive, but herbs don't take up too much space and often have a nice fragrant smell too! You can of course buy herb seeds, containers and compost separately online or at your local hardware store/nursery, but this can be a bit daunting if you're completely new to gardening. How much compost do you buy, and what kind? What seeds, and how many of each type? What's the best size of container to use and should it be made from plastic or clay? The worst of it is that when you try doing some research, you often find conflicting advice. For example many gardening articles and books recommend using unglazed ceramic containers, but for me personally, plastic or glazed ceramics are the way to go. They retain moisture better and I've always found them to give more consistent results.

A herb growing kit is therefore a good solution for the novice indoor gardener, and would make an ideal gift for anyone who's expressed an interest in growing their own herbs or vegetables, but hasn't quite taken the plunge yet! Herb growing kits also make a very good educational tool for children and teenagers, to start them learning about how things grow and where food comes from.

Most people will be interested in growing culinary herbs (i.e. herbs you can use in cooking), rather than medicinal or fragrant herbs.  The herb growing kits I've found online reflect this - most of the ones I found were squarely in the "culinary" camp although you can also get medicinal herb growing kits and kits for growing herbs to make tea! 

The type of kit you buy will of course depend on your budget and on whether looks are a priority. If you want something that would be at home on the most exclusive of office desks (never mind a windowsill), then the Aerogarden described above is the way to go. But if you'd prefer not to spend too much, then you can always opt for a simple herb starter kit with - say - ceramic or plastic pots. Or even no containers at all - just buy the seeds, and supply the pots yourself.

basil leaves during the cooking process). The most common variety is sweet basil (you might also come across Genovese basil, which is similar to sweet basil), but you can get a number of other types, e.g. small-leaved Greek basil or varieties with overtones of cinnamon, lime or lemon!

Mint. A really versatile herb. Can be used to make mint sauce to go with roast lamb. If you like spicy Indian food and want a cooling dip to go with it, try making raita, which consists of natural yoghurt (Greek-style yoghurt is good), chopped cucumber and fresh torn mint and coriander leaves (see below). My personal favourite thing to do with mint is to get a handful of fresh mint leaves, put them into a mug and pour boiling water on them. Three minutes later, you've got yourself some mint tea - it tastes waaaay better IMO than mint tea made from dried leaves.

Obviously these are not the only varieties of herb that can be grown indoors but they're good ones to start with. And if you don't want to buy a kit, you can always have a go at growing indoor herbs from scratch. I have had great success at growing basil and coriander indoors, using home-made compost and plastic containers. To reflect light and stop the plants from going all leggy and bendy, I borrowed a tip from the BBC's Alys Fowler and made a propagator out of part of a cardboard box which I covered in aluminium foil and old CDs! Ready-made kit or do-it-yourself - the choice is yours.

© Empress Felicity July 2010