How to Start Herb Seeds for an Indoor Garden

Herbs are used for cooking, medicine and creating home and personal fragrances. Whether you're growing an indoor herb garden for one of these reasons or for pure gardening enjoyment, an indoor garden is a fun, simple project. Herbs add healthy oxygen to your home and can act as a natural pesticide for some pesky insects. Indoor herb gardens grown from seed can be started at any time of the year, but if you want to transplant your herbs outdoors after the risk of frost has passed, plant your herb seeds in February.

6-inch clay pots
Permanent marker
Cookie sheet
Small rocks
Bucket
Sterilized potting soil
Perlite
Measuring spoons
Ground limestone
Large spoon
Herb seeds

Instructions

- 1
  Write the names of the herbs you're going to plant on the outside of each 6-inch pot. This will help you ti identify the young herb seedlings, until they've grown to the point that you can distinguish them from one another.
- 2
  Set your 6-inch pots on a cookie sheet. The cookie sheet will serve as an overflow tray for watering and makes it easy to move your herb garden, if needed.
- 3
  
  Pebbles and small rocks from outdoors work fine to aid in drainage.
  
  Place small rocks in the bottom of each 6-inch pot, enough to cover the bottom in a layer one rock deep. The rocks aid in drainage, preventing your herb roots from sitting in waterlogged soil.
- 4
  Make a healthy potting soil for your herb seeds by mixing one part perlite and two parts sterilized potting soil in a bucket. Add to this mixture 1 1/2 tsp. of ground limestone for each 6-inch pot you're using.
- 5
  Fill each 6-inch pot three-quarters of the way with your potting soil mixture. Place three or four herb seeds in the pot that has the herb's name written on it. Plant your seeds to a depth of four times the width of the seed.
- 6
  Sprinkle just enough potting soil mixture over the herb seeds to cover them to the proper depth.
- 7
  
  A sunny window is the best location for your herb garden.
  
  Provide your herbs with optimal sun exposure by locating your tray of herb pots in a south- or west-facing window. Keep the soil moist at all times, and remove any excess water from the cookie sheet so your pots aren't standing in water.

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