Buying an Indoor Herb Garden Kit? Read This First

You will need to seriously consider the following prior to purchasing an indoor herb garden kit. If you approach this correctly, there are definite advantages to growing herbs indoors, not the least of which is growing a relatively small group of herbs and concentrating on maintaining their health. Your taste buds will thank you, the herbs will thank you and your back will be grateful.

Your kitchen herb garden may take the form of a window box or a group of pots in your kitchen. Just because it is small does not mean it should be put together without some basic forethought.

There is really only one catch to purchasing an indoor herb garden kit and growing herbs in this way - especially in the initial stages. These plants crave - and they really do need! - ten to 12 hours of sunlight every daily to thrive. And herbs definitely far prefer natural light to artificial.

Before you make your final decision on what indoor herb garden kit and herb garden plants to grow, take a good look at the sunlight that comes through your kitchen windows. This ultimately dictates which herbs you can grow. Got a southern or a western exposure? This means a sunny and hot position.

If your windowsills are narrow, consider extending the sills. You do not have to be a carpenter to do this. You can easily add a finished one- by six-inch board to the windowsill. You can easily secure this simply by screwing it into the existing board of the sill.

In the northern hemisphere windows on the south side of your home are privy to the longest lasting and the brightest light. And of course vice-versa in the southern hemisphere.

This also means that this is the hottest portion of your home. But that does not mean every herb will want to live there. Purchasing the wrong herbs for your indoor herb garden kit may result in the more tender of your plants burning with that much exposure.

More indirect light and much less heat come through the windows on the north side (South in the southern hemisphere) of your house. Light on the other two sides -- the east and the west -- offer bright light but nothing that can compete with that southern exposure.(North in the southern hemisphere) If you must put some flowers either in the west or east windows, choose west first. This direction will be warmer than the windows facing east. This applies equally to northern or southern hemisphere climes.

Wherever you place the plants or other components of your indoor herb garden kit, remember to turn your plants once a week or so to allow the sunlight to reach all sides of the plant.

Pete Steel has grown herbs for 25 years in several different climates and soils. He reviews herb growing books and offers a free herb gardening startup course on herb garden plants and herb usage. Herb lovers subscribing to the weekly blogcast get some very unusual free bonuses.