Hello, I live in a first floor flat and I would like to grow some herbs for cooking.
Could anyone please recommend any herbs that would be suitable for growing indoors. The flat does not have a balcony and there is not much room on the window sills.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
Regards
Jane
You can use a "Growlamp" for indoor lighting. I grew herbs in an apartment for a few years like that.
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They eat the electricity though ;-)
Andrew
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Basil is the *last* thing I would try to grow indoors, much less in this stated low-light situation.
BTW, look for swallowtail catepillars on your dill. They *love* dill and parsley...or carrot tops if absolutely necessary. It may be possible to pick 'em off and deposit on a 'food plant' if you like the butterflies; oitherwise, judicious inspection and removal will keep your dill from complete devourement.
Frogleg wrote or quoted:
Basil does like light - but otherwise is quite happy indoors.
So in a couple of old spaghetti jars, I grew basil, cilantro, mint and lavendar. The basil and cilantro did really well, even with indirect light. Mint, obnoxious weed that it is, never sprouted. The lavendar really never took off either.
The basil and cilantro both put up with not being watered for over a week at a time when I had to leave for work. They both did really well and the basil even survived the time where I dug up the roots to try and "split" my plants. I still have the basil and it made the trek from California to Colorado with me.
Basil does need good light and it is worth shoving on a window sill. One way to increase your window space is by putting a small, narrow shelf in the area (those ones you see for showers with the sticky attachments so you can stick them to the window are awesome). Find one with narrow grid/supports and a lot of height.
The cilantro was not nearly as picky about light but it wasn't happy about having the roots dug up.
Good luck with growing herbs in your space. I found it to work out well and I was pleased with how forgiving my plants were.
~becca
?? Otherwise how? I have, just as an experiment, over-wintered a basil plant in a bright indoor room. It survived. It bore absolutely no resemblance to the full, lushly-leaved plants that were its summer, outdoor, full-sun cousins.
I am a light-Nazi because I tried for years to grow things in less-than-optimal light -- anaemic, spindly veg seedlings on windowsills and light-lovers outside in part-shade that used all their strength *leaning* toward inadequate sun. Then got a plot in full sun
-- whoopee! Plants that like sun *really* like sun. Not a couple of leaves of basil to flavor a small dish of red sauce, but bushes of brilliant healthy leaves to make jars of pesto.
If I had a solarium or even a bow-window with 6 hrs of sun a day, I would try to grow many things indoors. But herbs are almost all full sun plants, which means 6+ hrs of direct sunlight per day, not 2hrs of sun and enough light to read by for another 4.
What was the disagreement here?
Not a couple of
And when you are young and poor (hence living in a dingy/dimly lit apartment) and you just want to grow something...you can make do with a couple of leaves of basil to flavor red sauce.
See note about being young and poor.
But herbs are almost all full
They don't rock. My basil is not better than your outdoor version. But it, like the tomatoes I grew last summer in the window, is better than nothing. And if you divide the number of plants I was able to grow out of one bag of soil-less mix on sale (I recycle glass jars for pots), my basil cost me less than buying one set of the fresh stuff from the supermarket ($3+ here in Denver). And that doesn't even include the value I got out of having signs of life in a dingy, dark apartment.
after some>> >Basil does like light - but otherwise is quite happy indoors.
The statement doesn't make sense. It's like saying I like food, but otherwise am happy without.
Don't make assumptions. I have been young and poor, and now am, ahem, older and poor (which is worse). And as I noted, I have lived with many low-light situations and only achieved the joy of full sun when I had a community garden plot. My point, perhaps badly expressed, was that sufficient sunlight makes all the difference in the world. I *do* sympathize with the desire to have (useful) green things growing indoors. It pains me, however, to see recommendations for just putting a pot on a windowsill to have a year-round supply of herbs of every sort.
No disagreement there. :-) It sounds as if you have done very well. I'm just trying to pass along my experience that in general, indoor conditions just don't supply enough light for really satisfactory results with full-sun plants.
This is the first time in this group. I found the idea about putting the shower stickys a cute idea for small plants. Another idea is putting glass shelves up. If you have a large window it's great because you plant flowers etc. Up north (Yukon) my girlfriend uses grow lights (in the winter they only get about 6-7 hours of sunlight). I picked (rec.gardens.edible) because I'm into all herbs, wild and domestic. I'm also into natural healing and am hoping to find others with the same interests.
Grow what you want...have fun and learn what works for you.
I grow lemon balm indoors with great success. My LB gets attacked anytime I try growing it outdoors in my s. Florida garden but it's nice and healthy in a small pot I keep on a east facing windowsill in my bedroom.
Take care,
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