The Specifics of Growing Herbs Indoors and Outdoors

If you are into cooking, you know just how beneficial herbs can be for your meals. Adding a touch of freshly picked herbs can truly change the taste and turn an ordinary dish into a culinary perfection. Herbs also possess a great deal of medicinal properties, which can be really beneficial for human health.

With all of these benefits, growing herbs at your own home really seems like a great thing to do. What you have to consider is that growing herbs doesn’t require a great deal of gardening skills, or that much effort for that matter. Additionally, if you think that you cannot grow your own herbs just because you don’t have a garden space in home, you are most certainly wrong. You are more than welcome to plant herbs outside, if you have the available space, but in case you live in an apartment or your garden is filled up with other plants, nothing is stopping you from growing herbs indoors.

Both locations present great benefits. Growing outdoors allows for more herbs and better yields, while growing indoors requires less garden care overall and provide supply of herbs whole year round. Here is what else you should know about growing indoors and outdoors.

Specifics of growing outdoors:

• Garden location – choosing location for your outdoors herb garden is very important. Even though the plants in question don’t require much, receiving adequate amounts of sunlight will lead to strong and healthy harvest. Consider at least 6 to 8 hours of unobstructed sun daily in order to ensure healthy growth. Pay attention to the size of your garden and space that your herbs will occupy. To best determine how much space you need, read the instructions on the packs of the seeds.
• Soil – well-drained loam soil makes for the best growing conditions. Adding compost, manure or peat moss will greatly reward your gardening efforts. The soil you plant your herbs in should have good drainage and it should be able to retain moisture and nutrients. Test the acidity of the soil to best determine if conditions are good to plant herbs – generally herbs require a pH between 6 and 7. Raised beds are a viable alternative, should you find that the soil in your area is not ideal for growing herbs.
• Watering outdoor herbs – the thing to remember about outdoors herbs is that you should keep the soil moist, but never soggy. Too frequent watering may lead to shallow roots, or roots that are drawn to the surface and you don’t want that. Soak the plants occasionally, but not that infrequently as to allow the plants to wilt. Group herbs by types that have similar watering needs to make it easy for you to water them all.

Specifics of growing indoors:

• Garden location – choosing the right location for your herbs is the most important factor for starting a garden inside your home. As with your outdoors garden, you should be mindful how many hours of sunlight an area receives each day. According to many gardening experts, herbs that are grown indoors require at least 6 hours of bright sunlight every single day. Keep that in mind and situate your herbs near a southwest facing window so that light is not a problem. The most ideal location would be a corner between window facing south and one facing west. Should you find yourself lacking such location indoors, consider grow lights, which are a viable alternative to natural sunlight.
• Pick growing medium over garden soil – organic growing medium works better than garden soil when it comes to growing herbs indoors. You can find such product in every gardening center. Making your own mix is also an option. There are few recipes for this. One is to mix equal parts sterile topsoil, builder’s sand and compost; possibly adding organic fertilizer. A soil-less mix consists of one part vermiculite, one part perlite and 4 to 6 parts peat moss. Introduce some nutrients to better the quality of the mix.
• Watering indoor herbs – over-watering herbs is definitely not the way to go. Keeping the soil moist, but not soggy is extremely important for indoor herbs, as too much moisture can cause the roots to rot. Keep an eye on the top layer of growing medium – when you see it has completely dried out, then it is time to water. Acquire a moisture meter if you have any difficulties with determining when is best to water.
• Best indoors grown herbs – normally you can expect good results from growing annuals such as dill, basil and oregano all year round. Perennial types you should focus on are chives, sage, sweet marjoram and thyme. Purchase them from seed or young plants. Consider that keeping those inside during the winter months, but take the pots outside in the summer – that is good garden care for herbs.

Herbs are considered sturdy plants that can be easily grown in your home. By investing some effort and time in gardening, you can reap the great many benefits of having a fresh supply of herbs.

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