How To Grow Herbs Indoors

Many herbs are versatile enough to thrive equally well indoors or outdoor. As long as they get adequate care, you’ll find a lot of overlap between indoor and outdoor herbs. When beginning an indoor herb garden, just remember that containers dry out quickly and you should check moisture levels frequently for healthy herbs. Other than that, learning how to grow herbs indoors is basically the same as starting an outdoor herb garden.

Luckily, herbs are one of the easiest plants to grow. They require almost no care if they are planted in the proper soil. They also do well in soil not suitable for other plants. Other advantages to growing herbs are that they hardly ever need fertilized, are drought tolerant, and come back annually. The only thing you need to be careful to watch for is the amount of sunlight they need. Always be sure to place your herbs in places where they can get the exact amount of sunlight they need.

So what herbs do you choose for an indoor herb garden as opposed to an outdoor one?

As a Mediterranean native, Bay laurel requires arid conditions and a good amount of sunshine. But if you want to learn how to grow herb indoors, it can be a good plant for that too. If you plant Bay Laurel in a pot, make sure that you pick one with drainage holes. Let it grow in a spot with plenty of sunshine. Plant it is pre-dampened potting soil and make sure there is lots of room for roots to expand and grow inside the pot without becoming tangled. Allow it a minimum of 6 hours of daily sun exposure, and it will need to be replanted in a bigger container within the year.

Chives grow well in pots, but they really flourish in outdoor gardens. They absorb heat and will grow up to or over a foot with gorgeous purple flowers. They thrive in bunches and can do so for many years, even weathering the cold seasons with little difficulty. Prune leaves near the bottom instead of at the top.

When choosing an herb to grow, parsley is one of the best picks. It is best to grow inside. If you choose to plant your parsley seeds outside, you will have to replant each season. If you grow this herb indoors it will last as long as you take care of it. Once you plant your seeds and it begins to grow, remember that the new leaves grown from the center of the plant. When you trim, always remove from the outside first. These plants are lovers of sunshine. It is important to place them where they will receive southern expose (in the Northern Hemisphere).

It is best to keep the Lavender outside until you are ready to prepare it for potpourri or a perfume sachet. Not only does it make for great ground cover, but it also makes your garden smell great and provides outdoor beauty.

Learning how to grow herbs indoors will guarantee you a fresh supply all year. Make sure the soil is a good mixture of sandy loam and clay to allow some water retention. Whether from an indoor herb garden or an outdoor one, they are a pleasure to behold and smell and will add some zest to your cooking as seasonings.

How To Build An Herb Garden

In comparison to other plants, herbs don’t need that much care. It is necessary to spray roses and trim orchids, but herbs can grow in poor soil and don‘t need any trimming or special care. As long as there is sunlight and a water, they can thrive, therefore learning how to build an herb garden is quite easy.

However, it’s not quite as easy as just tossing seeds on the ground and leaving them there so you do need to have a few herb garden plans in mind if you want to grow these plants successfully.

Since herbs can do well in not so great conditions, they can overtake your yard quite easily. Lavender is known to spread and Yarrow may take control of large areas. Chives can even become bushy and dense. Be sure to leave enough space in your garden or pot for the amount of plants that you deem appropriate.

Most herbs will do great as long as you give them at least a foot of space between your major sections. For example, chives prefer to grow in a bunch so keep that in mind for your herb garden plans. However, it is important to remember that their roots will need both water and nutrients because other nearby plants will try to compete with them.

The need to prepare soil for herbs is minimal, however that does not mean that it doesn’t have to be done. To support a wide variety of herbs, a good compost or mix of clay and sandy loam will suffice. Also, adequate drainage is necessary when you learn how to build an herb garden. Since many herbs are native to the Mediterranean area, they will grow well in rocky, relatively dry soil. Drainage was perfect where they evolved. All herbs have the need for some water. It has a need to be moist and not soaked.

Two herbs that can usually get by without manually watering them are lavender and sage. Any occasional rain will suffice. Peppermint, however, will need more which can be given by an automatic drip system.

By putting down some landscape fabric, you should be able to limit the amount of weeds. This will help avoid pulling up weeds later or resorting to the use of herbicides. Herbicides will possibly kill the biological similar herbs along with the weeds and also spraying them onto your food does not bode well.

Herbs stand up well to bugs, however you may want to use some to sacrifice for the good of the others. Dill is used as a ‘trap crop’, which attracts insects away from more important crops such as tomatoes. However, if your desire is to grow dill, using insecticide should be a part of your herb garden plans.

When learning how to build an herb garden, it‘s important to know when each herb should be planted. Some herbs can be planted at anytime, however others should be sown at 4 week intervals and others even as soon as the snow finishes melting.

Aromatic Herbs

Most people think of herbs as flavorful additions for food or as natural remedies. These same herbs, however, also have aromatic properties that make them ideal for potpourri as well as aromatherapy. This is because of the oils that are present in the leaves of aromatic herbs are both flavorful and wonderfully scented. In addition, even those herbs that one would not want to eat can be a pleasure to smell.

Lavender is an herb that will always come to anyone’s mind. Its tiny purple flowers are beautiful to look at. The Mediterranean native is also delightful to smell. Perfect for perfumed sachets, it is also perfect to be placed around the edge of a garden in order to attract Black Swallowtail butterflies.

Being a member of the mint family, sage has been planted due to its spectacular scent. Even though it was originally found in Asia Minor, it is now cultivated all over. It will pleasantly surprise you with its aroma after rubbing the leaves between your fingers.

Another amazing add-on to your garden is Caraway-Scented Thyme. It is a beautiful small bush, attracts butterflies and bees, and also has a spicy aroma that herbalists love. Being another member of the mint family, in the early summer it will bloom pink blossoms.

One of the aromatic herbs that has been known of for centuries is the Sweet Majoram, not to be confused with the Origanum Vulgare, or Oregano. This spicy scent, a member of the mint family, is used frequently in perfumed soaps, and can be added to a potpourri bowl.

Preservation is a simple task. Fresh stems can be put in cold water in the fridge where they will last for around a week or so. They can also be stored in oil. They should be washed and dried for an hour, and then put into the jar. Afterward, the preserving oil can be poured in, and then they will keep fresh for about three months.

In order to store them for a longer period of time they can be frozen. They must be washed and dried and then placed into a plastic freezer bag. You can also dice them up and place the pieces into an ice cube tray. If they are not exposed to air, they will last for at least 4 months. To be able to store them for a year or so, they can be placed into a jar of vinegar after being washed and dried.

It is best to use them dried when they are being used in potpourri. They can be hung up in a location that is cool and gives shade. But make sure to remember that the scent is given by the oils. If they are left where they can be exposed to air for a prolonged period of time, some of the oil may evaporate and take the aroma with it.

If you want to store your herbs for longer, you will definitely need to use other methods of preservation. A superb way to keep the oils inside the plant until you are ready to use the herbs is to store them in airtight bags.

Some aromatic herbs retain a stronger scent than others when dried. Examples of such herbs are sage, thyme, mint, and marjoram. If these are dried properly, their scent should remain for several weeks.

Medieval Herbs

During the Middle Ages the importance of growing and harvesting herbs was essential for Europe. Medical knowledge and technology was extremely limited and the knowledge of herbalism was a matter of life and death. Medieval Europe developed this knowledge through practice and experience with Medieval herbs. It was a time of superstition more than science so much of their perceived knowledge was nonsense. Yet, much of what they did know is valid for us even today because they put so much of their heart and time in learning specifics about herbal medicine.

Medieval herb gardens were beautiful things, growing plants for medicinal, seasonal, or just observational purposes. To get an idea today of what these gardens would have resembled, check out New York’s Cloisters. Built in the 1930s, it was created to resemble a historical herb garden as closely as possible, and the goal, through skilled designers, was well achieved.

There are many sections in the Cloisters. The Bonnefont cloister eminently holds the herb garden. Over 250 species are cultivated there. These species miraculously hold up through New York’s frigid winters, scorching and muggy summers, and the sporadic rainy seasons of Autumn and Spring.

The Medieval herbs garden at the Cloisters is unique though it is largely derived from various types. Besides the wattle fences, raised beds, and central wellhead that typifies any classic herb garden archtype, it is characterized by a surrounding orchards and a variety of plants with the herbs at the center. No other garden could be so really desirable by any home practitioner.

Many herbs are found in suitable pots that look like those possibly found during that period. The herbalists are permitted to bring the fragile pots inside during winter since it can snow and the temperatures in New York can go below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

Herbs cultivated through the Middle Ages were administered in the futile attempts to keep evil spirits at bay. A common perception was that dill possessed magical powers. It was assumed that rosemary would prevent the plague. Sage was employed to treat epilepsy.

There are 9 groupings of herbs at the Cloisters. This corresponds to the ones that were common in that period. The first grouping holds Thistles and Absinthe, the second hold ones used medicinally, like Licorice and St. John’s Wort, and the third grouping holds aromatics such as Lemon Balm and Lavender.

There are different classifications that use herbs for art and some that would be questioned today, like motivating Love and Marriage with herbs like Meadow Rue and ‘magical’ plants such as Herb Robert. The final classification includes the herbs used for cooking like Parsley and Borage, Caraway and Fennel.

Medieval herbs were widely used, perhaps more so than today, however the same plants are available to herbalists in modern times.  More and more we are hearing about the medicinal properties of these herbs and these uses often coincide with what they were used for in ancient times.