Growing tasty herbs indoors?

I've just used the last of the delicious flat-leaf parsley I rescued out of the garden before the hard freeze. I was wondering if anyone has some hints for growing herbs with good flavor indoors. In the past, I have planted herb seeds in pots, but haven't been very happy with the spindly, relatively tasteless plants that I've gotten. I don't have a really sunny window to grow herbs in, so that may be part of the problem.

The fact that I'm a crappy gardener probaly doesn't help, either.

So, any hints on growing good, intensely flavored herbs? Or am I going to be even more grateful that H-Mart is nearby, with their delightful selection of fresh, reasonably priced herbs?

Giovanna

[Sorry, btw, that I haven't been contributing much to the board lately. Being eaten up serving corporate masters....]

A window with good light is essential. If you don't have a spot with good light, it is incredibly difficult to grow herbs indoors. You might also consider grow lights.

I'm still trying to find some space to put the AeroGarden.



www.aerogrow.com

Flip

Flip, please keep me posted on how your Aerogarden does...I consider it periodically (it's on my route to the laundry soap at Target) but the price tag always stops me...I suppose that might be mitigated by the cost of keeping Sparky in Pesto.

Mike Nagrant over at Hungrymag.com had this to say about his aerogarden:

http://www.hungrymag.com/2007/07/17/thi ... lant-life/

Nice link! I especially like the way MJN makes a financial roundup at the end...thanks!

I just bought the black Aerogarden for my ex DH for Xmas. He loves plants and growing things so I am hoping to use him for my herb farmer.

There was a longer review of the Aerogarden here on Salon.

I don't know that I'm sold on the whole thing, but learning that there's such a thing as a compact fluorescent bulb has me thinking....

Giovanna

I received an Aerogarden for Christmas and set it up a moment ago. The process was simple and took about 5 minutes. I'll let you know how my herb kit does.

I'm interested in hacking it and planting fraises des bois, a woodland strawberry variety. If anyone has tips for growing these or other berries hydroponically, please let me know. Aerogarden sells a strawberry kit, but the variety is Sweet Ruby.

Aerogarden is coming out with a seed kit for herbal infusions as well. I'm guessing it will include lemon verbena, mint, and chamomile.

You can buy an Aerogarden at Bed, Bath, and Beyond using their 20% off coupon, which lowers the cost to $120. If any of the seeds don't sprout, the company will replace them.

The founder of the site www.fraisesdesbois.com is selling Alpine strawberry plants in rockwool for the Aerogarden. They'll be ready in 8 weeks' time. I plan to buy some and report on how they do.

HI,

Before you buy them, inquire about the frequency you can expect berry fruitings. In cold weather climates, the berries are spring fruits and not continuously producing fruits beyond a brief period. The remainder of the summer is spent developing a root system to bear more fruits next year. I just don't know what to expect if there is an unconventional lifecycle without any dormancy.

Regards,

C2, I just received this message from the founder of fraisesdesbois.com:

I didn’t have any success with the Aerogarden. I tried growing strawberries from seed and starting seeds in rockwool.

I put one musk strawberry in a hydrofarm last fall to try it after rooting it in perlite. It rooted fine and somehow did survive the winter. It is hurting right now because I haven’t fertilized it but it still survives. Maybe it’s a “super musk”! I mention it because of all the literature I’ve read online it sounds like perlite might be a possibility. There’s a question about the grade of perlite because it comes in fine to coarse. Perlite in one of the Aerogarden cups might work. The plants need air and need the surface to dry out to avoid what I think the overall problem is – collar rot.

We have an aero garden and it works real well. We only use it in winter as in summer we plant outside in pots or in the garden.