Growing Herbs in Your Kitchen

Growing Herbs in Your Kitchen

Three weeks from seed to spice! How easy can it get. Grow your own herbs indoors this winter and enjoy everything from fresh basil on your pizza to roasted tarragon veggies!
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Sun City.

 Most herbs love sun and are made for bright kitchens. Line your window sill with small pots, or purchase a long plastic planter made for sills. Or, experiment with various containers, like colanders or antique watering cans.

Hang out.

 Herbs look great in a hanging wire basket suspended from the ceiling or the top of a window frame. Either place small pots inside the basket or fill the planter with moss, soil, and seeds. Place a potted plant beneath your hanging basket to catch runoff water.

Get snippy.

 Snipping actually promotes growth, so once plants are established, snip as often as you like. You'll be surprised how they pop right back up.

Sun lovers, unite.

 Try planting sun-loving herbs such as thyme, sage, and nasturtiums (edible flowers for salads) together.

Lighten up.

 Herbs get leggy and weak without sufficient light. To increase light, install standard fluorescent tubes and track lighting, or round fluorescent lightbulbs in flexible-neck lamps that are focused on the plants.

Mint conditions.

 If your kitchen suffers from low light, try cultivating various mints like spearmint, grapefruit mint (delicious with fish), orange mint, basil mint, chocolate mint, and pineapple mint; they thrive without much sun. Avoid lovage and angelica because they require a lot of light.

Touch 'n feel.

 Water by feel, not by the calendar, and beware of overwatering. Let soil dry out, and then water until it runs out of the holes in the bottom of the container. Never let herbs sit in a saucer of water.

Go natural.

 Herbs need little fertilizer, inside or out. Enjoy your naturally grown "organic" herbs.

Cook 'n plant.

 Have any leftover herbs from cooking? Simply remove the lower leaves from the stem and place the stem into a glass of water. Roots will grow rapidly. Then replant in soil.

Try the unusual:

 Cultivate some specialized hardy indoor varieties such as Cuban oregano, Rau Ram (Vietnamese cilantro), Africa Blue Basil and Green Globe Basil to add extra taste and texture to your meals.
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comments (5)
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recent comments
1/20/2010 , 
HELENE  B.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIPS. I WILL GO OUT TOMORROW AND BUY SOME PLANTS TO USE AND HIAVE IN MY KITCHEN TO BRIGHTEN UP THE BAD WEATHER WERE HAVING IN FLORIDA.
1/6/2010 , 
Lorraine  B.
Great idea. I really wab=nt to try the herb on the window sill. Thanks for the tipon rooting some for the indoors.
1/12/2009 , 
Sandy  B.
I love this idea ! I cant wait to get busy growing my own herbs. Thank you so much.

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