Plant an Indoor Herb Garden

In the fall, I had six healthy basil plants in the outdoor garden that I brought indoors and planted in two-gallon buckets with cherry tomatoes planted from the bottom.

I often wonder how many of any given plant will meet our needs in the kitchen. This year I believe I have my answer where basil is concerned, six plants. I brought the ones pictured above indoors and have been unrelenting in cutting the leaves back to use over pizza, Thai curry, farro vegetable bowls, eggs, and more. The herbs we use most often in our kitchen in the winter are basil, dill, and thyme. Outside of the basil, I have had a harder time getting the other plants started.

I purchased the growing tower pictured below in September. I brought in a pepper plant from the garden to top the tower and then planted dill, marjoram, parsley, and thyme from seed as well as several lettuce plants in the bottom tiers. The entire tower succumbed to an infestation of aphids, so I brought it outdoors to cycle through several freezes. I have soaked the soil in hydrogen peroxide and have begun again. My herb garden will not be ready in time for winter holiday cooking, but it will be on hand to brighten the dark days of deep winter in soups and stews.

My growing tower had to live outside through several freeze cycles to kill the aphids.

Last year, in anticipation of holiday cooking, I got our dill going in my AeroGarden just before Thanksgiving week, and this seems to have been the perfect amount of time to grow the quantity we needed to make our gravlax and dill potatoes for the Yulbord. Once the plants were large enough, I transplanted the dill seedlings to a 16 x 3 planter that fit perfectly on the window sill. The plants liked the afternoon light and the coolness near the glass. I was pleased to not have to purchase dill from the produce section in its plastic packaging. It felt like a little win as a gardener!