Start An Indoor Herb Garden {Herb Garden Series}

This weekend we finally planted our herbs! I’ve been wanting to grow our own herbs for a long time, but the last time I actually had the motivation to get it started it was already August and starting to get cold. So I’ve been waiting ever since to start an indoor herb garden, and now it’s finally time!

We went to Home Depot a week ago and found everything we needed. We decided on 6 different types of herbs: Dill, Catnip, Chamomile, Basil, Rosemary, and Spearmint. The associate at Home Depot said that they would be getting a shipment of already started plants in after a week or two, but we didn’t want to wait that long so we bought seeds. We also bought little seed starter kits because we figured that would be the easiest (read: most idiot proof) way to get these herbs growing. The total bill for six packets of seeds and three seed starter kits came out to $17.83; growing your own herbs is a super inexpensive alternative to buying them!

Start an indoor herb garden from seeds
I’m feeling pretty good about my ability to grow these little herbs, cuz these seed starter kits are pretty great. But if you have a black thumb, you might want to try succulents instead! They’re pretty easy to take care of, plus you can do a ton of things with them, like this adorable DIY succulent wreath from Unskinny Boppy!

But if you’re gonna go with seeds, I really suggest these seed starter kits. They have these little pellets in them and you just add water and they pop right up into super nutrient rich soil! The pellets also have little divots right at the top that turn into the perfect 1/4″ hole in the top of the soil.

Seed starting tray pellets expand with water

We added 2 C of warm water to each tray of pellets, they soaked up the water and became little bundles of soil, and we were able to just drop a few seeds in each divot and cover them up with the soil. The kits also come with little clear lids for the trays which turn them into miniature greenhouses to help incubate the seeds and seedlings.

Each tray had ten pellets, and we had three trays, so we ended up planting seeds from each type of herb in five different pellets. And we have some great southern exposure windows in our kitchen facing the back alley that get a lot of natural light during the day, so we’ve set the little greenhouses up in one of those windows. Here’s hoping something grows! I’ll keep you posted if it does.
Seed starting trays in sunny windowsill
Our windows are weird…the walls of the building are thick, so there is an inner and an outer window in each opening. The interior makes a great sill for growing plants though because we can shut the outer window when we need to protect the plants from the elements, and we can keep the interior window shut to protect the plants from the kitties!

Are there any avid gardeners out there? Any advice for us? Have you had any luck growing herbs, either indoors or out?

This post is part of a series about growing herbs indoors. You can see the rest of the posts in the series here.

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Jessi Wohlwend

I believe that anyone can do crafts and DIY projects, regardless of skill or experience. I love sharing simple craft ideas, step by step DIY project tutorials, cleaning hacks, and other tips and tricks all with one goal in mind: giving you the tools you need to “do it yourself”, complete fun projects, and make awesome things!

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  1. Jessi W says

    12 years ago

    That cardboard/foil thing is a good idea! Those windows don't get a ton of direct light, but they do have indirect sun all day, so I'm hoping it will work. Once they are out of their little seed starting greenhouses I will try that cardboard idea though! Thanks!

  2. Katie says

    12 years ago

    What funky fun windows!

    I was reading that apparently a problem with indoor plants/seedlings grown for transplant is them being too leggy, which means they've put too much energy into growing tall to reach the light rather than to growing strong root systems. This happens frequently when it's warm but the plants don't necessarily get enough light (like 8 hours a day or something).

    One thing the book advised to help was to cover pieces of cardboard with foil and put those around the plants so that light was reflected at them from all sides. That seems a more frugal alternative to buying expensive greenhouse lights!

    Good luck! I hope your seeds grow well. I told you I can never get my indoor herbs to stay alive, so hopefully you will have better luck!

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