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Indoor organic herb gardens have the advantage of being year-round, giving a continuous supply of fresh herbs. An indoor organic herb garden can be as small as a few pots on a window sill or as large as a greenhouse filled with containers of aromatic organic herbs.
Herb Choices
There are many ways to decide which herbs to include in your organic herb garden. Here are some ideas.
1. Italian Herb Garden: Plant rosemary, oregano, basil, fennel, and chives. Terra cotta containers will make your indoor organic herb garden look authentically old world.
2. French Herb Garden: Begin with lemon basil, marjoram, and parsley, and add other herbs you like to use in French cooking.
3. Fragrant Herb Garden: Choose angelica, bergamot, catmint, chamomile, thyme, lavender, lemon balm, mint, and sage. This organic herb garden is a natural air freshener.
4. Tea Herb Garden: If you enjoy herbal teas, your organic herb garden might focus on appropriate herbs for your tea: catnip, chamomile, lavender, lemon grass, mint, and peppermint.
You may not want to theme your indoor organic herb garden, but simply grow a few herbs that appeal to you.
Containers
Many herbs are well-suited to container gardening, but you will want to choose containers according to the herbs you intend to grow.
1. Those tiny herb peat pots sold in discount stores give the wrong idea. Your indoor organic herb garden will not last long with such small thinking.
2. Begin with containers a bit larger than those in which the live nursery plants were purchased. This will give your plants room to start growing.
3. Once your herbs are stabilized and growing well, transplant them into larger containers.
4. Basil, mint, oregano, and sage are examples of herbs that can be grown in pots of about 8 to 10 inches.
5. If you want a large crop of herbs that is constantly being replenished in your organic herb garden, use 3 to 5 gallon containers. This will assure you of having plenty of rosemary, basil, etc. when you want it.
Container Soil
Indoor organic herb gardens call for building organic soil. Your soil should have a pH of about 7, since herbs prefer a more alkaline soil. If yours is too acid, add some calcified seaweed. Be sure you use only organic fertilizers to build your soil.
Indoor Lighting
An indoor organic herb garden will need lighting, especially if your room is not sunny. Lighting is especially important for year-round indoor gardens.
Different plants have different light requirements, some preferring bright sun and others preferring shade. Most herbs prefer full sun, but there are exceptions, so learn what each of your herbs needs.
Incandescent lights, even though called “grow lights”, are a poor choice for your indoor organic herb garden. Fluorescent lights are better, and have the advantage of being inexpensive, easily available, and easy to set up. The best choice for lighting your indoor organic herb garden is high intensity discharge lighting, often called HID lights. These are even more affordable and efficient.
Useful and Beautiful
An indoor organic herb garden can be both useful and beautiful. Herbs are generally eager to please, and require little maintenance. Simply give them the right food, water, and sunlight, and they will reward you abundantly.
There is nothing more pleasing than walking right outside your kitchen door and finding all the spices you'll need for a tasty and fresh dinner. How about picking a bit of rosemary for those lamp chops, or cutting a bit of that fresh dill for that flounder you're baking, or pulling some fresh oregano leaves to add to that spaghetti sauce or snipping some fresh basal for a tomato, mozzarella cheese and basal salad. The availability of fresh herbs can add a real kick to your ordinary dishes and turn them into something special. Fresh herbs are also likely to help you boost your imagination in the kitchen.
One of the best things about an herb garden is that you don't need to be a gourmet cook to enjoy it, and it can be grown without a huge amount of space. Some people only grow three or four different types of herbs. If you are an apartment or condo dweller you can plant your herbs in a window box or in strawberry pots. You should know that herbs generally don't survive the winter outside left in plastic window boxes and pots. Their roots will freeze. If you have enough light inside you may be able to winter them inside, but they are so inexpensive it's easier to start a box again in the spring.
Most herbs are very easy to grow and do well with little care. They also become fuller and produce more the more you use them. Most herbs are perennial plants, meaning that when they are planted in the ground they will come back year after year. As your plants mature and get older you may need to start thinning them out.
Another fun thing to do with your herbs is to dry them to use during the winter. You can carefully cut bunches of herbs, trying not to disturb their leaves, and hang them inside to dry. The herbs are best cut mid day, when it has been very dry outside. Once they are dry they can be stored in zip lock bags in a dry and dark area. You will not want to crumble the leaves until you use them.
When you cook with herbs you will find that if you use fresh herbs you'll need to use more than you would of dried herbs. This is because dried herbs tend to have a stronger flavor.