With a lot of people staying at home, it gets a little boring when you have nothing to do. One of the few things people started doing as a new hobby is gardening. If you’re interested, we’ll teach you how to set up your home for an indoor herb garden.
How to Set Up Your Home for an Indoor Herb Garden
Setting up an indoor herb garden not only helps you get busy while staying at home. It also gives you access to herbs that are beneficial for you. Setting it up requires a bit of your time so make sure you’re ready for it.
Decide on the Location
You first want to identify where you will set up your indoor herb garden. A great place to set it up would be by a windowsill or in a kitchen. You can also do it on a terrace or a porch if you still consider them indoors.
After picking a spot, you should clean up the area. Make sure there is a proper water circulation system in place. Indoor plants introduce new cleaning challenges, so make sure you know how to keep your home clean with an indoor garden in it.
Prepare What You Will Need
Now that you have an area where you can set up your indoor herb garden, it’s time to set it up. First, you need to prepare the materials that you will need. You will need the following:
- Baby herbs or seeds
- Planters or pots
- Potting mix and pebbles (soil)
You would also need some tools like a watering can and gardening tools such as:
- Gardening gloves
- Hand trowel
- Secateurs
- Spade
Pick the Right Herbs
You can easily grow most herbs in an indoor setting. Indoor gardening has a lot of benefits on its own and so do the herbs you grow. If you want our recommendation, these herbs have great growth chance under an indoor environment:
- Basil
- Chives
- Mint
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- Thyme
Make sure you choose herbs that benefit you or your home’s needs. For example, if you want herbs that will help you with self-care, you can grow aloe vera or chamomile.
You can either pick seeds or herb cuttings for growing your herb garden. Cuttings are a branch of a herb that is cut at the node. You soak it with water until new roots sprout. Seeds are a safer option if you want a faster and easier process.
Choose a Container that Complements the Plants
You can plant herbs in almost any type of container as long as it has some sort of drainage. You also need something that will protect the surface underneath like a saucer or round plastic protector which you can find in gardening shops.
We recommend you get a large pot. Smaller pots are great for saving space. However, herbs do grow and you’ll eventually have to repot them.
Choose the Right Soil
Indoor herb garden needs to have a potting mix that is suitable for drainage. Make sure you pick a soil that is suitable for indoor garden plants.
Some potting mix feels heavy so you would want to add some perlite or vermiculite to the mix. Vermiculite holds the water a lot longer if you are in a dry climate.
Never use dirt from the ground for your indoor garden container. It’s not suitable for growing plants indoors and restrict the roots breathing. Outdoor soils are also not applicable since they might contain tiny bugs and parasites.
Make Sure They’re Well Lit
Most herbs thrive well if exposed to a lot of sunlight. Make sure your indoor herb garden is near or at direct exposure to sunlight. You would want your herbs to get at least six hours of sunlight every day for them to grow abundantly.
That is why you would want your indoor herb garden placed near a window to get sunlight. The best one would be a south-facing window that contains bright light. Avoid setting your indoor herb garden in places with little to no sunlight.
If you can’t have bright sunlight because of the design of your home, you can use artificial lighting to grow your herbs. Use a simple task light with a CFL bulb on your plants. It will add additional maintenance costs though.
Conclusion
Setting up your indoor herb garden at home is simple and easy. The difficult part about it is maintaining and caring for your herbs so it will grow and thrive. That’s why you need to follow every preparation for setting up your indoor herb garden.