Hello All, has any member of the group grown an indoor herb garden with hopefully better than moderate success? If so, what are you using, including soil…living in Arizona, I’ve yet to be able to grow anything food related here so I’m hoping doing the indoor thing will work. Thanks!
hi! anything indoor potting soil should work! for most herbs you want good drainage indoors. i would make sure you have lots of drainage holes in your containers so you’re making sure you’re draining well! also keep in mind the amount of light you’re giving them, you might need to buy a light or keep them by the windows. make sure to preen your herbs, this will help them grow as well. i would do research on which herbs need how much moisture, that way you can put certain ones together.
you can also do a hydroponic herb garden if you’d like! i’ve this with chives and green onions, basil, rosemary, mint, cilantro, and a bunch more! it’s super easy and they mostly just need light.
i hope this helps!
18 Likes
Hi @ingrid,
Maria already shared some great indoor growing tips for you- I second what was said about needing good drainage and light!
My mother is a gardener and she keeps a sun room with plants that wouldn’t survive outdoors in the New England winter- that being said, herbs are particularly tricky! They do not seem to like being indoors, at least in our conditions 
Growing herbs inside generally requires soil with lots of nutrients (since they will be limited to only what is in their pot and any extra you give), special lighting, and keeping the temperature within their required growing zone temps.
It’s a lot of work, but it can be done! And having herbs to use in cooking year-round is a true blessing 
Wishing you all the best- happy gardening! 
17 Likes
Thank you!
11 Likes
I personally haven’t been able to grow much of anything indoors. I do know how to germinate things indoors before they are put outside! Indoor gardening hasn’t been without trying; for some reason, I am much better with the outdoors. That’s more of an 80% of the time lately 
I try though! Even houseplants are difficult for me.
This past year I could grow my hibiscus plants & a deep red dahlia! Now I have to bring in the dahlia to store it for the winter before we have a consistent deep freeze & I hope I manage to do that the right way, too!
Good luck with your indoor garden! I wish you all of the success!
12 Likes
Perhaps not technically indoors but I grow mine in a little portable greenhouse. I just use regular potting soil/compost.
In the summer, I place them outside everyday in a sunny spot the garden then put them back inside at night.
This is a no no in the winter here but some, particulalry mint, are quiet hardy and so i tend to transplant it into the ground or a large outdoor pot. (Beware - mint grows like wildfire🤣).
Others i just tend to transplant into larger pots and keep them in the greenhouse. I spray the greenhouse surfaces with water to keep mositure in the air.
As i said, not technically indoors but perhaps another option.
Good luck and happy growing
Alan
11 Likes
Thank you for sharing. What amazes me is that I find it easier to grow things dependent upon location. When I was in the Air Force and stationed in Germany, I could grow anything indoors. Now, back in the States and in Arizona, it’s hit or miss. Outside can be easier but not always.
11 Likes
Thank you, Cosmic_Curiosity for your suggestion and insight. Sadly, greenhouses both portable and stationary are difficult here, the southern Arizona sun is too intense. But I do plan to have a container garden and use our existing dripper system to water the plants when traveling (something I haven’t tried but am hoping for positive results 
)
10 Likes
I have indoor grow light in the basement. I typically is manure for soil. My garden really took off with it last year. I bring in some things over the winter. I give them plant food every two weeks or so. Change the soul as needed. You can tell when there no nutrients left.
This is last year
I start my seeds in starter trays then transplant when they are ready for more room. At an inch or so high
12 Likes
Ps here’s where I got my lights. They do payments. I have two grow lights they work great.
8 Likes
Devenne, thank you so much for the information! Especially the grow lights, I’ll look into ordering them now. Blessed be!
9 Likes
No problem my friend Happy Growing 
Here a picture of my set up it’s a bit messy right now. Theres two tarps underneath to protect the floor from the water 
Can’t have plants upstairs the cats eat them unless they are in this 
7 Likes
I have an Aloe Succulent (the last succulent I led to its demise, and my husband doesn’t let me do anything with any other plants in the house) I read up on this type and was talking to my husband about it because he has a pineapple 
tree 
but it needs a more tropical type of setting, which isn’t here unless it’s summer. We have a sun lamp, so we have the succulent, Christmas cactus 
and pineapple tree (again, not sure if it’s a tree or plant he received it as a gift) under the lamp on the table by one of the kitchen windows. The sun 
rises on that side and gets the most sunlight throughout the day until mid-late afternoon.
Once it stops being so stormy, I can probably put it back in my room and hang it with the macrame hanger in one of my bedroom windows that get sunlight during the day too! So I’m excited for this one.
I just separated my Dahlia tubers and got them stored for over winter, along with some Tiger Lily bulbs. So I was excited that I could do that too and then have some to plant next year with some seeds for the front yard!
8 Likes
The far plant on the right in the top picture with the grow lights is a pineapple. I’ve had it two years.i planted it by using the top of a pineapple and shaved up the sides to allow the roots to grow. I just bring it in during cold months. I only water it once every two weeks and not a lot. I moved it to a larger pot before winter. I’ll have to find a even bigger pot this spring so it can keep getting bigger. I got the idea on YouTube.
This is a different video but you get the idea.
7 Likes
Oh! I never even thought of doing that to have a pineapple plant/tree… My husband had gotten one from my son’s girlfriend, either for his birthday or on Father’s Day 
Must have been Father’s Day because the nursery was open & we had it outside after. (This nursery is only open between the last week in April & the last day of June. They have some amazing plants of all kinds there though)
The large pot is the Pineapple
during the winter. It was determined there wasn’t enough sun
throughout the day because of the season we brought up the sun lamp. So they are in the sunniest window with the sun lamp over them. Plus the last 2 weeks we’ve had some crazy weather
& more days without sun
I am going to watch the video again though to see if there is something else we can do to help it, but I do know we are going to have to transplant it to a larger pot so it doesn’t become pot bound this year with the 2 smaller ones growing now too.
Maybe I should turn one of the rooms in my house into a grow room so I can just put it in a large tote & not have to worry about using a forklift to move it each year 
8 Likes
I have a indoor hydroponic system I got it as a kit and it works very well I’m also an indoor grower as well with soils I try to stay away from fertilizers or chemicals. What I do is I go to the store by three types for four types of soil :
- Soil for moisture control
- Soil for all different types of vitamins it needs
There is a few more I mix with them to make my blend
And or you can use Fox farm soil that’s the best for indoor growing or growing anything special if you know what I mean
Fox farm soil is the best high nutrients soil for indoor growing I even use it for my outdoor growing because it was so good to. For indoor get a cool mist humidifier
8 Likes
Oh! Great ideas too! Two came already in the soil, so I kept them in it. The Christmas Cactus was my birth mother’s & we did change out some of the soil it came in with some from our yard. When we transplanted the pineapple plant this year, we added that same soil from our yard that, I guess, is a compost area where we get what we need & then mix it with what the plant was originally in. Then I went to our garden center to get indoor potting soil that can hold moisture longer.
My husband had brought home some things from work for helping plants, and one of my sons & worked for a landscape, landscape construction, etc… company. So they will bring home plants, planting items, garden bed things, materials for walkways, patios, driveways… It’s amazing what people in my area will have them do & then remove it to do it a different way… & for some reason, it doesn’t matter what it is… plants, bushes, trees, mulch, planters, soils, stones, pavers… The companies (all of the landscape/landscape construction companies do this) just put it in the area where they get rid of them.
The company’s departments started asking my husband if we wanted them for our yard or if they would ask my son. We get a lot of things for the yard, depending on their jobs. Sometimes the customers want things transplanted to another area or in another style. Other times they don’t want them at all & they were put in maybe a week before. The company has been on one job site for a year & a half because every time they complete the job, the customer wants something changed, sometimes the entire property right afterward. I can think of 3 sites they have been on for over a year now that I think about it. One of them is a well-known landmark with an amazing viewing area & is an amazing site anyway here that A LOT of tourists go to, but even though there are signs & fencing, they still go over the fences & past the signs. It’s private property, where you aren’t supposed to be past the fence, even if it wasn’t privately owned. Sometimes people from out of town & especially the tourists in the summer blow my mind 
When I had to overwinter my dahlia tubers, I got some vermiculite & peat moss for storage. (The research & such to figure out how to keep them over the winter when the first 2 times I failed miserably was ridiculous )
Sorry for the rambling & random offshoots there I tend to type wherever my train of thought happens to go sometimes without realizing it
10 Likes
It’s fine with me I love that about you keep on rambling on I love your stories and ideas
6 Likes
I have found that if you grow outside it’s impossible to have fruit and veggies without having some sort of pesticide. Impossible! For us here anyway.the bugs will have a feast if not.wasps too. They get into my melons. I just try to make sure to follow the directions and not use it to close to harvest time. If not half of my stuff like green beans and such would not have made it. The bugs eat the leaves too.
Yeah the big plant Def looks like he needs a pot upgrade like u said. It don’t take too long lol I’ve upgraded my pot three or four times. Plant food and a soil change would liven him up. I noticed the house dirt mixes don’t hold their nutrients very long. At most you may get like 4 months out of the dirt life. I like to use manure cheap bags at Menards under 3$ a bag a white bag. also the plants really thrive in manure. I have a box of plant food I give a sprinkle of plant food every two weeks or so. I can tell from the color of the plant it’s lacking sunlight. That brand of lights I posted they really brighten up the plants color to a deep bright green color. They just need fresh soil, plant food, and more light.thsts what I’d suggest. 
The color of the soil when it’s no longer holding nutrients dims and the texture of the dirt feels dry and kinda crumbly.
7 Likes
I am sure that has to do with the very low humidity of Arizona. Plants that need higher moisture/humidity struggle in the desert. You could try adding a humidifier to your place and see if that helps.
9 Likes