Recycled Indoor Herb Garden

I know nothing about herbs and couldn't find much information about growing under lights, so I didn't want to put a lot of money into something that would die. Here's my solution: Plastic beverage containers with tops cut off and holes poked in the bottoms. Bag of potting soil. Two $11 grow lights from a big-box store (already had them for seed germination). And a bunch of overgrown and rootbound late-season starts bought two-for-one at the local nursery. Voila - now I'm cookin'!

Anyone have any thoughts on helping them adjust to their new environment? Should I trim them down a whole bunch? Put the light closer to them so they don't get leggy?

How cool! Where there is a will, there IS a way! In general, a pruning won't hurt but remove no more than 1/3rd and don't waste the trimmings... use and enjoy them.

Tell us what plants you ended up growing? That will mean we can give better advice.

No more than 1/3. Got it.

This one makes me laugh. The Purple Ruffle Basil kind of looks like the hair on the Hawaiian Fruit Punch mascot.

So in addition to that, I have the following:

Burnet
Rosemary
Chives
Thyme
Green Boquet Basil
Marjoram

Looks like they didn't have time to prune the bouquet basil, so I'll have to work on that to get it to bush out. Right now it's tall and skinny.

This message was edited Jul 4, 2008 12:44 PM

Cute container/plant combination!

Burnet I've no experience with.

On the chives, don't nip them from the top or prune all at once. Only harvest a few stalks around the edges. It will continue to fill in well and you will enjoy them for a while.

The rest I think I'm safe to say cut them back leaving 2/3 to 3/4 of the plant intact.

Hope others will weigh in if I am wrong (or right). LOL pod

I think I can do that - thanks for your help! :o)

You are welcome. Good luck and do keep us posted... as you said, there wasn't much info on growing under lights. Documenting your experiences will be valuable to others.