Pest Strategies

Looking for a simple and effective way to grow plants in your home? Indoor herb gardens come as complete kits, allowing you to successfully grow healthy plants — even if you don’t have a green thumb. To help narrow your search for the best indoor herb garden, Pest Strategies researched dozens of products on Amazon. Learn more about our findings below.

 

Buying Guide

Whether you want a stress-free growing experience, don’t have space for an outdoor garden, or need a gift for the budding plant enthusiast in your life, indoor herb gardens are a versatile solution. However, these plant kits range from self-watering units to simple seed packets. Use the information in our buying guide below to help direct your purchase and find the best indoor herb garden for your needs. 

• Herb type: Different types of herbs require different amounts of light, water, food, and soil. Most herb garden kits come with multiple types of herbs with similar needs. This gives you more plant variety while still offering a stress-free growing experience. 

• Planter type: Most kits come with planters. A basic, affordable kit has individual pots for each type of herb. However, if you want to up your gardening game, you can also find electronic units. These units hold multiple seed-filled pods at a time. They typically have other useful features, such as a self-watering system.

• Accessories: More robust indoor herb garden kits come with more than just herb seeds and planters. Other common accessories include markers for labeling the plants, shears for tending to the plants, and soil discs for feeding the plants.

• Electronic unit features: Electronic units do more than just hold your seeds. Some common features include:

• Self-watering system: If you’re a chronic overwaterer, consider a unit with a self-watering system. You fill the reservoir with enough water for a few weeks or months, and the unit releases the proper amount of water for you.

• Automatic light: Units with self-watering systems typically also have timed lights. These not only help you determine how much light your plants need, but they also keep you from having to move your herbs in and out of the sun. 

• Food and water reminder: Let’s say that you prefer to have control over watering and feeding your plants. Some herb kits let you do this, holding your hand throughout the growing process by notifying you when your plants need more water or food. 

• Educational materials: Since growing indoor herbs is often simple, many people start their gardening journey with one of these kits. If you have limited gardening knowledge and don’t want to scour the internet for information, choose a kit with an instructions manual. 

• Gift packaging: Want to give an indoor herb garden kit as a gift to a friend or family member? Certain kits come packaged in a decorative wooden box rather than a traditional cardboard box. 

 

The Benefits of Growing Herbs

It’s well-known that plants improve your health by naturally filtering the air around you. Indoor plants also serve as decoration. An indoor herb garden offers these benefits with the added practicality of being edible. From sustainability to cost-effectiveness, here are some other benefits of growing an indoor herb garden: 

• Sustainability: We should all make efforts to become more self-sufficient. Though growing your own herbs at home seems like a small contribution, it’s a great place to start. After successfully growing small plants, you can expand to fruits and vegetables if you have the space.

• Awareness: Rather than being at the mercy of your neighborhood grocery store’s produce section, growing and cultivating your own herbs at home means that you know exactly what’s in them and how they’re grown. You set the parameters, having the freedom to select high-quality organic and non-GMO herbs. 

• Freshness: Having an indoor garden is convenient because you can pull herbs from it to add to your recipes. Because of their freshness, these herbs provide more flavor compared to dried, store-bought herbs and seasonings. 

• Cost-effectiveness: Once you have an established indoor herb garden and know what you’re doing, buying new seed packets is not only easy, but also cost-effective. A seed packet often contains hundreds of seeds, and the price of the entire packet is usually a fraction of the cost of pre-grown herbs. 

• Self-satisfaction: On a personal level, cooking a meal is infinitely more gratifying than going out to eat and having someone else make your food. An indoor herb garden takes this to the next level. There’s an immense sense of pride and satisfaction that comes with using ingredients that you grew yourself. 
• Pleasant aromas: The presence of an herb garden in your kitchen or living room will naturally purify and freshen the air around you. This partially eliminates the need to diffuse essential oils or spray artificial fragrances around your home to mask unpleasant odors. 

 

 

FAQs

• How long does it take for my herb seeds to germinate? 

It depends on the quality of the seed and the type of herb. It can take anywhere from a few days to a month for your seeds to germinate and start to grow.

• Where should I place my indoor herb garden? 

Most people place their indoor herb garden in the kitchen on a countertop, windowsill, or island. If you have a sunroom, this is another good option. Know that soil and water may lead to mess, so place your herbs on a surface that’s easy to clean.

• How do I know when the plants in my indoor herb garden need to be repotted?

Look for overgrown or protruding roots from the bottom of the pot. Another indicator is when the plant has become limp or stopped growing. 

• Which herbs grow best indoors? 

The indoor herb garden kit you choose likely contains the seeds of herbs that are selected for their resilience and ease of growing. However, here’s a list of fast-growing indoor herbs to look for:

• Sage
• Fennel
• Dill
• Chives
• Coriander
• Mint
• Chervil
• Oregano
• Cilantro
• Basil

• Are there any precautions I should take with my indoor herb garden? 

To keep pets and small children safe — as well as your precious herbs — place your kit on an elevated surface that they can’t access. Additionally, exercise caution if your herb garden has built-in lights. Make sure that it’s plugged into an outlet away from your kitchen sink or other water source. 

 

 

Pest Strategies provides reviews of select products that are top-selling on Amazon and/or popular in consumer searches. Our team evaluates the products based on industry research, consumer reviews, pricing data, and other objective criteria. Unless otherwise noted, these product reviews are intended to help inform buying decisions for non-professionals. Because pest control products can be dangerous to your family if mishandled, we always recommend consulting with an exterminator, even if just to ask for advice on how to apply pest control products yourself.