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How to Grow Herbs Indoors
Easy? Maybe not. Rewarding? Hell yeah.
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The grow-your-own movement is all well and good if you’ve got a great yard, but tons of people don’t have access to an outdoor space. So we spoke with gardening experts to figure out what it takes to grow herbs indoors.
- How does my garden grow? Here’s how: All about light, water, pots, soil, food, and more.
- Gardening expert Rose Marie Nichols McGee answers your questions.
Growing anything isn’t easy (and yes, you may kill off a few plants before you get the hang of it); just start with the simple stuff. Even if you won’t be able to brag about your heirloom tomatoes, you can still feel the satisfaction of putting your own basil in a cocktail or stir-frying with some fresh lemongrass.
WHICH HERBS TO GROW
Here’s a breakdown of what to grow, for clueless gardeners to the greenest of thumbs. Or jump to an explanation of light, water, pots, soil, food, and more.
EASIER
Bay Tree: A very slow grower. Be sure you pick up a Laurus nobilis, cautions Rose Marie Nichols McGee, coauthor of Bountiful Container and co-owner of Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Oregon; the Laurus nobilis is best for cooking with. Bay tree can become infested with scale if it gets too dry—use dishwashing detergent to wash off the leaves, then rinse them thoroughly.
Chive: Doesn’t require as much light as some other herbs. The Grolau variety was bred for growing indoors.
Kaffir Lime Tree: Kaffir lime leaves are often used in Thai cooking. Be sure you give this plant special citrus food.
Lemongrass: A good way to cheat, because it requires no soil; you can just use a stalk you get at the market. Make sure it has a good amount of stem and the bottom is intact; trim the top and put it in a container with a couple of inches of water. Connie Campbell, a New Hampshire–based master gardener, says, “It will send out roots and new sprouts and many, many new stalks from the bottom, and you can just cut those off and use them.”
Mint: Very invasive, so it needs its own pot. Peppermint is great for teas, and you’ll only need a little of it. You usually need a lot of spearmint for recipes, so it may not be worth growing in a container.
Parsley: It doesn’t need much sun, says Carole Ottesen, author of The New American Garden, but it’s a slow grower so may not yield a whole lot.
Vietnamese Coriander: Almost identical in taste to cilantro, says Campbell, and “very, very reliable.”
MORE DIFFICULT
Oregano: Try the Greek variety. Needs a lot of light.
Rosemary: Keep it on the dry side and look for an upright variety like Tuscan Blue or Blue Spire. It needs a very sunny window and probably supplemental light. Since you don’t need a lot of it for cooking, it’s a good herb to grow. It’s very sensitive to overwatering.
Thyme: It will likely need supplemental light. Look for lemon thyme, which has a unique flavor and can’t easily be purchased in markets.
HARDEST
Basil: It’s a favorite to cook with, but it’s a tough one to grow. Your best shot is to grow it during the warm, bright summer months. Connie Campbell suggests the Spicy Globe or African Blue variety, the latter of which is more like Thai basil and does well indoors.
Cilantro: Cilantro is the name for the stems and leaves of the coriander plant. It often bolts, meaning it starts growing flowers and seeds instead of leaves. Leslie Land, gardening columnist and blogger, sows coriander seeds in a shallow flat (a plastic tray), then eats them as sprouts, root and all. “Sow the coriander seeds quite thickly, like almost paving but not quite. Only let seedlings get about four to five inches tall, then pull them up, roots and all, and wash them.” To make this economical, she says, just pick up coriander seeds in bulk at a health food store.
Sage: Rose Marie Nichols McGee says that sage is more susceptible to mildew and is very sensitive to overwatering. If you want to try it, though, Connie Campbell says to go for the dwarf sage, which is more compact than regular sage.
We grow herbs and tomatoes on our deck in the summer. I like the idea of having someone on the board to bounce questions off of...very nice idea, Chow!
My pots do'nt have drainage holes, they have that little device at the bottom that holds the soil up and lets teh water seep down and be used when needed, is that bad? If my plants will die in that pot I will change it.
Also my mint has brown tips on the end of the leaves, am I watering too much? The parsley has a thin film of white mold on the soil, too much water?
Cilantro died and I wont attempt it again.
To me ... bad info. Rosemary, basil and oregano some of the easiest to grow. I grew them inside on my window sill for years.
Coriander and parsley and bay, all a bit more tempermental. Thyme, much harder, dill has seasons and cilantro as well.
Bay, never had to wash off the leaves, chives require light. They don't grow without it. Not FULL sun, but definitely all day.
Basil and sage are no work and grow easily. Why are they the hardest? I grew them on a window sill in MI, now outside in FL, In a pot, on a window or outside. They require no work, sun and heat tolerant and pretty cold tolerant. Why so hard. My friend grows basil and sage and rosemary in pots in her kitchen year round in Maine.
I don't understand any of this. And find it very misleading.
BamiaWruz: If you wander over to the thread here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/606792, we've got a gardening expert that can answer questions for you. Just post a note and she'll help you out with your mint and thyme questions.
kchurchill5: The rankings are based on the comments from all the experts I interviewed. They consistently said that the majority of homes don't receive enough light (6-8 hours) to keep the real sun loving herbs like rosemary, basil, and oregano thriving indoors. But it sounds like yours has plenty to keep them happy. That's great! Page two of the story is sort of hard to find, but it sums up their thoughts on what it takes to be successful to grow all these plants inside--though it seems you've already got a great green thumb!
I don't think basil is hard to grow. At least, not in my aerogarden.
Re cilantro: I have read that there are varieties grown for the leaves, which are slower to bolt. If you use seed from the spice bin, you are going to be getting a variety grown for seed, where bolting quickly is desirable.
For cilantro your definition of bolting is unclear/reversed. Bolting is when the flowers start to appear, flowers being a precursor of seeds so if you want coriander seed that's how to get it. Bolting does not involve excessive leaf growth which is actually desirable for cilantro.
Sally599, you're right -- we reversed the definition by mistake. It's fixed now. Thanks!
Rosemary is pretty easy: I keep my plants year round. I stick the potted plants in the garden patch so they get sun during the summer, and bring them in before frost and place them in a sunny window for the winter. They need large pots but as long as you remember to water and if you have sunny windows, you can grow rosemary easily.
I think saying basil is "a tough one to grow" is a bit off.
Basil is pretty well accepted as one of the easiest herbs to grow, even indoors, even in moderately cold temperatures. It isn't temperamental, it is annual, and it responds well to both frequent thinning/picking and unrestrained growth.
I have parsley growing in my window (all day sun) and it grows like a weed ;-)
Just chiming in that basil is quite hardy and will grow indoors.
my biggest issue growing herbs are the bugs that "come with it". in particular i seem to get small "mites" when i tried mint and thyme (no real issue with basil) - which basically make them inedible since it's impossible to wash them all off. not sure if the bugs came with the original plant (have to assume so). any ideas?
I grew herbs from seeds the summer before last, and the only thing left living was a bunch of parsley. I would have had basil and thyme as well, but I forgot to put holes in the bottom of the tray, and the very first night I moved in with my sister, I had put my plants on the balcony and they drowned from a rain storm! They didn't survive.
I also have a lot of mint from my parents' house. I need to plant some of it in a pot. It grows around the pond and smells incredible in the Summer.
Bottom line: If I can do it, you can. Just don't forget to put drainage holes in your pots ;-)
I'd like to know how large the bay leaves grow? Do I need a larger pot than the small ones I use for my regular basil and parsely?
ghc630: My neighbor has a bay tree that is about 40-50 feet tall so they can grow very big. I prefer to grow mine in a one gallon container on the patio and it is almost 3.5 feet tall. If the plants root system grows to the point of being restricted by the size of the pot then it will stunt the vertical growth so start off with the small pot if you like. You have time to transplant later.
Chanin, thanks so much for the info on the bay leaf tree. I myself would prefer the smaller one if I can get the same results and get the leaves for cooking.
I have only north light but lots of it. can i grow basil ?
Every time I try to grow basil, the stalks turn black. What causes this?