Growing Herbs Indoors Year Round

When it is cold outside, most people do not want to go out to try to garden. But even though it is cold, people still want to garden all the same. This is one reason why indoor gardening has become so popular. Plants that are fairly easy to grow successfully indoors are herbs. Not only beautiful to look at and fragrant, you can also eat them. Give year-round indoor herb gardening a try, and you will be hooked.

You can either start your herbs from seed or purchase plant starts at a nursery, or even hardware and grocery stores in season. Starting seeds is very cost effective, and you have a much wider selection of varieties from which to choose, but it does take longer to get from a seed to an edible plant. If you want to enjoy your plants sooner, then look for plant starts instead.

Some herbs can grow in a sunny window with just the natural light that is available. Herbs like mint, rosemary and oregano work well in this type of light. However, if you wish to grow plants like basil or cilantro, then you will need to make sure that you give them extra artificial light, or they will not survive in the lower-light levels.

There are a couple of different options for lighting herbs with artificial light. Fluorescent grow lights can work well for this purpose, as can metal halide HID lamps. Other specific types include solarmax grow lamps, chrome dome grow lights and hortilux grow lights. Both fluorescent and HID types of light offer the blue color spectrum needed for early plant growth, and the red and orange spectrum, which plants need to flower properly. Both types of lights require electrical ballasts or digital ballasts to control the flow of the electrical current in the bulb, and they can be included inside the light fixture or they can be a separate component used in conjunction with the light bulb and light fixture.

Herbs can be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annuals complete their entire life cycle of germination, growth and reproduction in one year, whereas perennials will live for many years and repeat their life cycle. Biennials live for two seasons, where they grow in the first and bloom in the second. To help you decide which ones to grow, think about the types of foods you enjoy cooking, and what types of herbs you typically use to flavor them as a good way to start. Some herbs are fairly easy to grow, including annual basil, dill and summer savory. Parsley is a biennial, and also easy to grow. Beginners also usually have good luck growing perennial mint, thyme, winter savory, marjoram and chives indoors. The perennial herbs can survive for several years, and they like to go outside in the summer if possible.