Growing an Organic Herb Garden Indoors
Indoor organic herb gardening can be fun and very rewarding experience, along being way to add your own personal touch to your inside decor and at the same time improve the air quality of your home.
Herb gardening indoors can be an excellent family project and can be done in a minimal amount of space. Small window pots are an excellent choice for planting many types of herbs, along with window boxes that can be easily accessed from the inside of your home.
If you are new to indoor gardening, start out small with just one or two pots and expand your gardens as you get more comfortable with what it takes to grow plants indoors. Herbs like basil, parsley and rosemary are all easy plants to grow and ideal plants for indoors.
Basil doesn’t like cool temperatures, keep them in a warm place and preferably with full sunlight. Cutting the stem from the top of the plant just above where there are four sets of leaves to encourage growth. As the plant grows, harvest or prune often from the top of the plant, even if your not ready to use what you harvest, this will develop a stronger, healthier plant and remove any flowers as they form. This will also improve the growth of the plant and improve the flavor of basil.
Harvesting basil can happen when you don’t have any use for it. It can be frozen simply by placing it in a freezer bag. It doesn’t keep well when directly refrigerated, placing it in a glass of water and in the refrigerate will only keep for a few days.
Rosemary is another herb that requires full sunlight for 6 to 8 hours a day, a well drained soil and good air circulation. It is a good practice to re-pot the plant once a year to refresh the soil, and keep the soil moist at all times. A good soil mix that retains moisture, and drains well is very important.
Parsley is another great choice to grow indoors and needs an area that receives full sunlight. Curly and flat leaf are the two varieties of parsley, flat leaf being the preferred choice for cooking or chopping, due to it’s stronger flavor. Once harvested, it can be used fresh for your everyday needs or easily dried for storage to be used at a future date.
Once you get use to growing herbs indoors, you can try different plants and even get creative by growing a garden with a particular theme,or purpose, like an Italian herb garden for cooking. Herbs like basil, chives, fennel, oregano and rosemary are all herbs that are common to the cooking needs in Italian recipes. If you are looking for a garden that is designed for the purpose of a natural air freshener, choose herbs like angelica, chamomile, lavender, lemon balm or mint, there are just so many choices to choose from. When choosing herbs to grow in your own personal organic indoor garden, personal taste or needs is what will determine your choice.
