Anyone here grown their own cooking herbs?

wheldar

Thinking about starting to grow my own cooking herbs again. Mosty sweet basil, oregano, marjoram, chives, cilantro and parsley. Just wondering what you do during the colder monhs. Do you use a grow light or something similar?

I only hav one true southfacing window in an upstairs bedroom to use as a place to set up a window sill 'garden'.

Just wondering what others do during the winter months for growing fresh cooking herbs.

All comments appreciated.

RG

TanzaMarie

Our herbs are outside...we dry some of them, but mostly we just buy fresh herbs from the grocery store. I think most things buy the basil come back. Not sure about the rosemary.

chefphil321

I grow my own herbs every year and when fall comes, i harvest them and either dry them out or put them in a container with olive oil and freeze them. My rosemary has survived the last 2 winters.

enchantedgardener

I've never had any success growing herbs indoors in the winter. It's too cold near windowsills for them to grow. And the sunlight hours are too few.
You would need to set up an indoor cultivating area with proper lighting, consistent temperature, and adequate humidity. A bit of a challenge, sure, but doable.

If I had the space and the money I'd buy an Urban Cultivator!

cococa

I live in California in a condo, so luckily weather isn't a huge factor in growing herbs outdoors here. We have a couple of pots of herbs on our patio. They're doing pretty well, but we have had to battle aphids and other intruders. One thing I wish we knew - pinch off those darn flowers! Our dill flowered, and then died. Apparently the plant puts all of its energy into flowering and then no more leaves grow. Ah well, lesson learned. We were able to save the parsley and oregano, and the thyme and mint are flourishing. Mint is crazy. The bugs love it and it grows everywhere all at once. It's in the same pot as our rosemary...which may not have been the best idea because the rosemary now seems stunted/strangled. We also had basil for a while, but that also died. Guess we'll have to give those two another go.

Overall we love having our own herbs. The flavor is so much more intense than what you can buy at the store. We made this mint and berry salad the other day for a potluck - to die for!

enchantedgardener

If you buy herbs from the grocery store, especially leafy ones like parsley, trim the ends and place your herbs in a glass of water exactly as you would do with cut flowers. Store them in the refrigerator (except for basil, which does better at room temperature) and refresh the water daily. They will last much longer this way.