Making a home herb garden in pots or other planters that will thrive indoors is fairly easy. One may have seen some people growing them from containers hanging in windows or growing in window boxes. It takes no more effort for one to nurture indoor herbs than it is to grow herbs outdoors. The same rules apply to both outdoor and indoor herb gardens. These plants will need sun, water, and nutritious soil to grow.

Sun
The biggest concern for an indoor home herb garden is sunlight. These plants will need to be placed to make sure they get plenty of sun. A good location for an indoor home herb garden is a window(s) that gets sun from the west or south. There are varying needs for sunlight for varying herbal plants, but all must have sun at some point. Also, one can fake the sun by artificial lamps like sun lamps, grow lamps, or even by using fluorescent lighting.

Soil
Another requirement for herbal plants is quick draining soil, but not overly rich. A good mix for a soil that is not too rich for herbs is a two-to-one ratio of potting soil to sand. Be sure to put in drainage gravel for the herb’s container to keep from water logging the plant. Another tip is to use a dash of lime (about a teaspoon) for each six inches of pot height. Mix it into to the soil to help enrich it.

Water
Do not forget about watering a home herb garden. There are certain tricks to maintaining humidity like misting or using a pool of watering rocks. Indoor plants (or any plants in containers) need more watering than open garden plants. However, one needs to not saturate the container or plants but does need to keep the roots moist but not saturated.

Outdoor Versus Indoor
The plus side to using growing pots for a home herb garden is that they can be moved around. The best herbs for indoors is obviously the year around plants. Outdoors is better for perennials. Regardless, when the weather starts to threaten frost, bring them inside. There are exceptions and some herbs that actually do better after a frost. Consider the benefits of leaving outside tarragon, mint, and chives to get hardier from weathering a frost.

So, as one can see that more sun or less sun, indoors or outdoors, frost or no frost, some herbs do better than others in certain situations. Like mint should be contained in containers as it grows quite wild in a garden. But all herbs can be grown indoors and in containers. Maintaining a home herb garden is easy and makes using the herbs that much easier for culinary purposes. Just mind the aforementioned tips. Be sure to give the herbal plants a gentle feeding ever so often. Another tip is to repot the plants annually. Pruning helps, but in the case of herbs it means using them or at least harvesting them often enough to keep them healthy. Do not be afraid of over using the herbs, but if use slows be sure and store the harvest or give some away.