Salt Lake City Green joined forces with KUTV2 this morning to show viewers how easy it is to grow your own indoor herb garden! View the segment.

Tools

• Planter – choose one with excellent drainage.
• A few of your favorite herbs – we love basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley and thyme.
• Watering can
• Potting soil – use a few rocks at the bottom of your planter to improve drainage.

Getting Started

If you are a novice gardener or don’t have much of a green thumb, growing an indoor culinary herb garden is an easy place to start. Most herbs are sun worshipers, so all you need to get started is a nice, sunny place in your home.

Plant

• Start with a container large enough to accommodate growth.
• Fill the pot with soil three quarters of the way full.
• Moisten the soil
• Remove herbs, loosen soil.
• Place herbs in pot and fill with enough soil to cover the root ball.
• Pat the soil down lightly and water well.

Care

• Light is the most important element in growing indoor herbs. Find a spot that gets at least 6-8 hours of light a day.
  • Herbs growing long stems and few leaves are probably not getting enough light and are stretching to find it.
• Water each herb according to its individual needs. To avoid over watering, only water your herbs when you see them start to wilt. This should be about once a week.
• Regular clipping will promote further growth, so use your herbs frequently. But don’t cut more than a third off at one time.
• If your herbs start flowering, they are not being clipped enough!

Enjoy!

Growing your own indoor herbs is an easy way to jazz up your cooking and experiment with new flavors — all while saving money. Just remember that fresh herbs have a 3:1 ratio, which means that you should use three times the amount of fresh herbs compared to their dry counterparts.