Designer FIle: Bring the Garden Inside

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Bring the Garden Inside - Herbs by Design

I love growing herbs indoors. Not only do they look great, but I always find something satisfying about using my own tiny harvest in the kitchen. Happy Planting!

From franklyesoteric.tumblr.com

Here are some useful tips quoted from a great nursery in Ontario - Richters Herbs (www.richters.com/)

1. What are some herbs that are especially easy to grow on a windowsill?

Most mints, scented geraniums, rosemary, bay leaf tree, savory, oregano, are some of the easier ones.

4. How much light? Exposure? Water? Fertilizer?

Herbs need as much light as possible, preferably the natural variety from the sun. Direct sunlight, at least four or five hours a day, is the minimum herbs need. Even with that, and with plants positioned close to a south, east or west facing window, I like to recommend supplying supplemental artificial light from growlights.

I often feel that I am battling popular notions about raising plants that are quite wrong. For instance, people often ask, "How many times a week do I water my herbs?" and I will answer bluntly that I don’t know. I always say herbs need to be checked frequently, and only watered if the soil feels dry to the touch. In the winter that might work out to once a week while in the summer that might be once a day. Your finger is a marvelous water meter, so use it to check the soil moisture.

When watering, it is better to water more throughly and less often. A good principle to follow is to water until water comes out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the container.

While many herbs can thrive in poor garden soils, they need decidedly more nutrition when grown in containers. That’s because the container restricts the range of the root system and the plant cannot exploit as much soil volume as it does in the garden. We like to apply a fertilizer such as liquid fish emulsion or a 20-20-20 chemical formulation. Use half the recommended concentration biweekly but only during the periods when the herbs are actively growing.

So with that knowledge in tow - here are some of my favorite examples of how to make herbs a great statement in your home.