The potted herb garden is essentially the only way to do indoor herb gardening. There are a few essential elements needed for any garden, but for an indoor garden it is especially important to make sure these three key needs for the plants are met. The key for healthy plants is to have a rich healthy soil and adequate amounts of water and sunlight.
Generally speaking, there are three soil types. Soil that doesn’t hold water, but it drains away, which is considered a sandy soil, clay like soil, which retains water and is very slow to drain away, and some combination of these two. Since you’ll be creating your own soil mixture for a potted herb garden, you will want to create a balance between sandy and clay soils. You want just enough water retention, but also good drainage.
One of the best ways to make this kind of soil is to mix a peat type soil with vermiculite and compost. The peat is for water retention, the vermiculite is for drainage, and the compost adds nutrients. A basic rule of thumb is to mix equal parts of each together.
Once you have your plants established in their new potted home with good soil, keeping them watered is important. With a little research, you should know how much water each herb you are growing requires. Some take more water and others less. You will want to watch your plants and adjust the amount of water you use up or down based on herb type, over all plant appearance, and by feeling the soil. One tendency for new gardeners is to want to over water. The more you know about your plant choices and the more observant you are, the better your results will be.
The last main consideration is sunlight. You will want to utilize south facing windows to gain the most sun exposure year round. If you can’t provide your plants with enough sunlight, you will want to supplement with the use of florescent lights. To do this, you will need to use daylight bulbs, keeping in mind to look for 6500k on the label. You will want to have a minimum of 100 watt output as well.
The size and shape of the bulbs will be determined by the location, size and layout of your potted herb garden, but if you make sure to get equal to 100 watt or more and have 6500k daylight, you should be okay. You may find that once you have success, if you have the room to keep more plants, you might venture into growing fruits and vegetables too.
