Tips for Planting an Indoor Herb Garden

Just because you don't have a backyard doesn't mean you can't enjoy fresh herbs when cooking. Here are tips for planting an indoor herb garden in your kitchen. You won't need any special equipment...just plenty of water and sunshine!

Make sure you check out all the other informative gardening posts available for you here on the site as well as the FREE Printable Garden Tags at the bottom of the post.

While it is great to have space in your backyard for a big herb garden, this isn't always possible. You might not have the right soil or climate for it, or you might be living in an apartment or condo that doesn't have yard space.

Planting an indoor herb garden is easy if you follow these easy tips listed below. You can also find information, recipes and preserving herbs by checking out my Garden Planner and Herb e-Book that's available.

Find the Natural Light

Even herbs that grow well indoors or with shade need some type of natural light. Try to find a location in your home that has the best light, aiming for four or more hours a day of natural light.

This might be near the sliding glass door heading out to your patio, or a south-facing window. Try to avoid north-facing windows as they don't usually provide enough sun.

If you want to see how much sun a particular area gets, turn off all the lights in that area, then see where the most light comes in.

Try Artificial Light if Necessary

If you notice that the herbs are not getting sufficient natural light, don't be afraid to try artificial light. This is something we recently did while trying to start vegetable seeds indoors to plant in our garden.

We set up tables in a spare bedroom and purchased a few LED grow lamps from Amazon. They were easy to use and helped tremendously to get our seedlings to grow.

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Plant the Right Herbs

Most herbs can grow indoors under the right conditions, but some of them do better than others. Some of the easiest herbs to start with indoors are lemongrass, mint, chive, rosemary, and basil.

With chives, they don't need quite as much direct sunlight, which makes them good for indoor conditions. Mint needs its own pot, but grows great indoors, while lemongrass doesn't require any soil.

Have Good Drainage

This is one thing that people are often intimidated by when it comes to growing plants or herbs indoors. Outside, it is pretty straightforward when you are trying to add drainage to plants in containers or those in your yard.

However, it is not difficult to add drainage for indoor herb gardens, and it is a really important step in the process. For good drainage, you want to put the herb in a potted plant with soil, but one that has holes in the bottom.

This should then be placed on a pan that is able to catch the water. You don't want moisture to get through the saucer, so metal and plastic are usually good materials.

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Maintain the Indoor Temperature

While many herbs can be grown in containers inside your home, you still need to pay attention to the climate. This includes checking the temperature in your home and making sure it doesn't get too cold or too hot. A temperature of around 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit is usually good to stick to.

Have a thermometer attached to the window where the plants are being kept so you can see what the actual temperature is near the plant. This will be the most accurate reading.

Free Gardening Tags Printable

Here's a fun printable for you to use while growing your herbs. You can print out these tags and use them to label the plants. Or you can use them when you dry the herbs.

If you're looking for tips on drying herbs, check out my Herbs e-Book.

I suggest following these simple steps for printing the tags:

• Print them out on card stock.
• Then using craft scissors or even a paper cutterto cut the tags out.
• You can punch a hole using a single hole punch. 

How to Download and Print 

• Click the aqua print button below.
• A new window will open in your browser.
• Once the printable is downloaded, you'll be able to print it out using whichever print program you have for your computer or phone.
• Make sure you select "fit to paper" in your printer program.