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Growing a herb garden for kitchen window sill is a fabulous idea.
This is the easiest method of doing it:-
It's cheap and immediate but there can be problems.
You can try a sample lesson to help you decide if the Herbal Academy of New England is the right choice for you - follow the link below.
Firstly, not all kitchen windowsills are created equal.
Some get brilliant burning sunshine for part of the day and the rest of the day they're in shade.
That's not always good for growing plants and you'll struggle to keep them healthy.
As you can see from the photos at the top of the page, the plants have brilliant sunshine, then a few hours later, there's shade. You can see that the plants on the right are in total shade, the ones in the middle partial and the ones on the left are still getting good sunshine.
What we don't know is for how long that lasts - in an hour or so, they may all be in the shade.
One of the other problems can be when you have a kitchen that's 'inside' like mine.
I have a utility area cum conservatory on the back of my house and it creates a lot of shade in my kitchen.
Nothing grows well on my kitchen windowsill for very long - everything gets spindly, pale and weak looking.
The aspect is East so there is only sunshine early in the morning and for the rest of the day, I have very little natural light.
If you're a dedicated cook then growing herbs in your kitchen is a great idea.
The books all say to grow your herbs as close to the house as you can - so that you can cut and use them quickly.
You can't get much closer than an indoor herb garden and you don't have to brave the elements if it's cold or wet to get them!
So if you think you can get a good amount of light to your herbs or you're willing to move them around to get good light, then follow these steps:-
Basil is a good herb to grow - it's a mainstay for culinary use and it reputedly keeps flies away, which is a definite bonus in your kitchen - good old basil... I'm not entirely sure, but I do not have a problem with flies in the kitchen and I do grow basil.
I cook a lot of pasta with tomato sauces and make pesto (basil) use parsley in sauces and scattered over a lot of things (it's the taste of summer and to be able to snip it regularly is a real luxury) and sage leaves to make stuffing regularly - at least twice a week with roast chicken or pork joints or steaks.
In addition, I use sage for medicinal purposes in the winter - cough medicine, sore throats.
Coriander is a good choice if you cook Asian food regularly and chives are another good choice as their delicate onion flavour doesn't overpower other foods.
Check the navigation at the top to see what conditions each herb likes - the section is 'growing herbs' and there's photos on there which will link you straight through - or the thumbnail photo just below here will take you to the same destination.
I love a mini herb garden in my kitchen window - it's good for the winter, when it's dark or raining and cold - it means you can use them easily, so it makes sense to grow the herbs you use the most and as many as you have room for in your indoor herb garden.
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