Stop Buying Fresh Herbs: 5 You Can Easily Grow on Your Windowsill
I’ve discovered something about myself this year: I really quite like gardening.
I’m very much a novice and I’m largely making it up as I go along, but I’ve become one of those people who likes pottering about outside, checking what’s growing and getting ridiculously pleased when a new shoot appears where yesterday there was apparently nothing.
The problem is, autumn is arriving.
And while I’ll happily wander around the garden every morning in summer inspecting my pots to see what’s happened overnight, I’m considerably less enthusiastic about doing it when it’s cold, wet and dark.
So, what happens when you combine my newly discovered love of gardening with something I’ve always loved — cooking?
An indoor herb garden, obviously.
It actually makes perfect sense. I buy fresh herbs constantly, particularly coriander, basil, parsley, mint and chives, so why not try growing the things I already use rather than restricting my newfound gardening enthusiasm to the warmer months?
You don’t need a greenhouse, vegetable patch or even a garden to do it. A decent windowsill, five pots and a bit of know-how are enough to get started.
And because I’m not remotely interested in growing something purely for the satisfaction of keeping it alive, I’ve chosen five herbs I’ll genuinely use in the kitchen.
So, if you fancy a bit of indoor pottering yourself this autumn, these are five easy herbs to grow on a windowsill — and, more importantly, how to keep them alive long enough to actually cook with them.
1. Basil
Basil is probably one of the most tempting herbs to grow because buying those little packets of leaves feels particularly ridiculous when you only need a handful.
It’s also one I use regularly, whether that’s torn over tomatoes, stirred through pasta or scattered over something just before serving.
Basil likes warmth and plenty of light, which makes a bright kitchen windowsill a good place to try growing it.
You can start basil from seed, but if you want something you can use immediately, buying a small plant is obviously quicker. Just don’t assume the supermarket pot it arrives in is necessarily the best place for it to stay.
Those incredibly bushy supermarket basil plants are often lots of young plants packed tightly together. They look fantastic when you buy them, but they’re all competing for water, nutrients and space.
Gently dividing the plant into a few smaller clumps and repotting them into containers with drainage holes and fresh compost gives them considerably more room to grow.
How to keep basil alive
Put basil in one of the brightest, warmest spots you have and protect it from cold draughts.
Check the compost regularly and water when the surface starts to feel dry, but don’t leave the roots permanently sitting in water.
Harvesting it correctly also matters. Rather than picking random individual leaves from around the plant, pinch or cut a stem just above a pair of leaves. This encourages the plant to branch and produce bushier new growth.
If flower buds begin to appear and you’re primarily growing basil for its leaves, pinch those out too.
Biggest mistake: Leaving a crowded supermarket basil plant in its tiny original pot and wondering why it rapidly gives up.
2. Coriander
This is the important one in my house.
I use ridiculous quantities of coriander. Curries, noodles, salads, marinades — if coriander works with it, I’m probably adding a handful.
Unfortunately, fresh coriander also seems to have an extraordinarily brief window between looking beautifully fresh and resembling something dredged from a pond.
So this is one herb I really want to have growing within snipping distance of the kitchen.
Coriander is easy to grow from seed, and because the plant develops a taproot and doesn’t particularly enjoy being moved around, it’s best sown directly into the pot where you intend to grow it.
Use a reasonably deep container with drainage holes, sow the seeds across the surface, cover lightly with compost and water gently.
How to keep coriander growing
Give coriander plenty of light but be wary of excessive heat. It can cope with a bright windowsill, but very hot conditions can encourage it to bolt — when the plant switches its attention from producing leaves to producing flowers and seeds.
Keep the compost consistently moist without allowing it to become waterlogged.
There’s another thing worth knowing if you eat coriander as frequently as I do: one plant isn’t going to provide an infinite supply.
Instead, try succession sowing. Sow a small amount of seed every few weeks so that younger plants are coming through as older ones begin to finish.
Harvest the larger outer leaves and stems as you need them while allowing the younger growth in the centre to continue developing.
And if your coriander does eventually flower, all is not lost. Those flowers will ultimately produce coriander seeds, so the plant can give you another ingredient entirely.
Biggest mistake: Expecting one sowing of coriander to provide fresh leaves indefinitely. Little and often is the way to go.
3. Mint
If you’re slightly lacking in confidence when it comes to keeping plants alive, mint is reassuringly enthusiastic.
Anyone who has ever put it directly into a garden may use rather stronger language than “enthusiastic”, because mint has a habit of spreading wherever it pleases.
On a windowsill, however, that vigour is useful — provided you keep it contained in its own pot.
Unlike basil, mint doesn’t need hours of intense sunshine. It still needs good natural light, but it can tolerate a slightly less sunny windowsill, making it useful if every surface in your kitchen isn’t bathed in sunshine.
You can grow mint from seed, but buying a healthy young plant is an easy way to get started.
How to keep mint alive
Give it its own reasonably generous pot with drainage and keep the compost moist. Mint doesn’t particularly enjoy completely drying out.
Regular harvesting will help encourage fresh, bushy growth. Cut stems just above a pair of leaves rather than continually plucking individual leaves.
If it starts becoming long and straggly, give it a trim.
And don’t underestimate how useful a permanently available supply of mint can be. Beyond drinks, it works in salads, yoghurt dressings, with peas and potatoes, alongside lamb and in all sorts of Middle Eastern and Asian dishes.
The main thing is to resist creating one beautiful mixed herb planter and popping your mint into it alongside everything else. Its vigorous roots can quickly take over the available space.
Biggest mistake: Sharing a container with other herbs. Mint is not particularly good at respecting its neighbours.
4. Chives
Chives aren’t exactly the show-offs of the herb world, but they’re one of those ingredients that become incredibly useful once they’re permanently sitting in your kitchen.
You can snip a little over eggs, potatoes, soups, salads, fish or sauces without having to buy an entire packet because a recipe requires a tablespoon.
They’re also relatively compact, so you don’t need to sacrifice half the kitchen to grow them.
Chives can be grown from seed or you can start with an established plant. If you’re sowing them yourself, plant several seeds together because chives naturally grow well in clumps rather than needing to be meticulously spaced into individual plants.
How to keep chives growing
Give them a bright windowsill and a pot with good drainage. Water when the top of the compost starts to feel dry rather than following a rigid watering schedule.
The useful bit is that chives actively benefit from being harvested.
When you need some, use clean scissors to cut leaves a few centimetres above the base. Don’t simply give every leaf a little haircut at the top.
Fresh leaves will continue growing from below.
If your chives eventually become particularly dense and crowded, you can divide the clump and repot the sections, essentially creating several plants from the one you started with.
They can also produce attractive purple flowers, which happen to be edible too.
Biggest mistake: Constantly snipping only the very ends of the leaves instead of properly harvesting them.
5. Parsley
Parsley deserves better than its reputation as the sad little garnish that used to appear on the side of virtually every restaurant plate.
Particularly if we’re talking about flat-leaf parsley.
It’s brilliant chopped generously through salads, sauces and dressings, works with fish, pasta and roasted vegetables and is one of those herbs where you can use a proper handful rather than three decorative leaves.
Parsley is easy enough to grow indoors, although you’ll need a little patience if you decide to start from seed.
Germination can be slow, so don’t assume you’ve done something wrong when absolutely nothing seems to be happening after a few days.
Sow the seeds thinly, cover with a light layer of compost, water gently and keep the compost moist while you’re waiting for the seedlings to appear.
Of course, if patience isn’t one of your virtues, you can simply buy a young plant and start from there.
How to keep parsley alive
Parsley likes plenty of natural light but doesn’t require quite the same intense sunshine as basil.
Keep the compost lightly moist, avoiding the extremes of letting it become completely parched or permanently soaking wet.
When you’re ready to use some, harvest the outer stems close to the base, leaving the younger growth in the middle to continue developing.
Don’t just repeatedly pick leaves from the top.
It’s also worth knowing that parsley is a biennial plant. Its natural life cycle lasts around two growing seasons, and eventually it will turn its attention towards flowering and producing seed rather than supplying you with endless leaves.
At that point, replacing it isn’t an admission of gardening failure. The plant has simply done what parsley does.
Biggest mistake: Picking a few leaves from the top every time and leaving behind increasingly tired stems.
What Do You Actually Need for an Indoor Herb Garden?
Not very much, thankfully.
Part of the appeal of this for me is that it’s a continuation of my new gardening hobby, not an excuse to acquire £200 worth of specialist indoor-growing equipment.
For these five herbs, the basics are:
- Pots with drainage holes
- Saucers or decorative outer pots to catch excess water
- Good-quality multipurpose compost
- Seeds or young herb plants
- A bright windowsill
- A pair of scissors for harvesting
The drainage holes are more important than having particularly beautiful pots. Herbs generally won’t thank you for leaving their roots sitting permanently in soggy compost.
And while specialist grow lights are available, I’d see how your herbs cope with the natural light in your home before deciding you need one.
Should You Grow Herbs From Seed or Buy Plants?
I’m doing a bit of both.
Starting from seed is considerably cheaper and particularly useful for something like coriander, where succession sowing means you can keep another little crop coming through.
But buying a young plant gives you something established that you can start using immediately.
Supermarket herb pots can work too. Just remember that some contain numerous plants packed into a small space because they’re grown to look lush and appealing when they’re sold.
If a plant looks particularly crowded, splitting it into several clumps and giving those roots more room can dramatically improve its chances.
A Little Bit of Gardening, Just Indoors
I suspect this is what appeals to me most.
I’m not attempting to become self-sufficient, nor do I imagine my five little pots are about to make a noticeable dent in the country’s agricultural output.
I just enjoy growing things.
There’s something surprisingly satisfying about wandering outside in the morning and discovering that something you planted has produced another leaf, another flower or another shoot.
As the weather changes, I’m not going to stop gardening completely. I’m simply moving a little bit of it indoors.
And this version comes with an added bonus: when something grows particularly well, I get to eat it.
For someone who loves both cooking and a good potter about, that sounds like a fairly perfect autumn project.
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