During this season of short, dark days, indoor herb gardens offer welcome greenery and fragrance, as well as adding zest to cold-weather stews and soups.
“In the winter, even indoor plants won’t be doing much, but an already established herb plant can thrive quite happily in a sunny window,” said Sonia Uyterhoeven, who teaches herb gardening at the New York Botanical Garden.
“Easy herbs to grow inside are basil, chives, parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, mint, cilantro and bay,” she said. “If you bring lemon verbena inside for the winter, it will drop its leaves. But just cut it back hard and in a month it will look good again. It’s fragrant and really lovely. Rosemary can do OK, but needs time to adjust to lower indoor light and should be given two weeks to transition first.”
For rooms with limited light, parsley, chives and mint are quite forgiving, she said. Basil, oregano, rosemary and sage, all Mediterranean plants, generally do better with much more sun. Most herbs are happiest with six to eight hours of sunlight a day.