Winter 2024

Small Indoor Winter Pleasures

by Cynthia Engers

Herbs

We all enjoy herbs added to our foods, and if they’re not available in your winter garden, consider getting a head start on spring by growing them indoors on a windowsill. You can grow them from cuttings, buy small plants, or start them from seed, which is the most budget-friendly option. You can use them for cooking once they reach a few inches in height.

Popular choices for indoor herbs include chives, basil, lavender, parsley, mint, rosemary, oregano, tarragon, sage, and thyme. Coriander and mint are good options as well. Basil, parsley, and cilantro generally grow well from seed.¹

Microgreens

If you’d like to expand your horizons or simply want faster rewards for your efforts, consider starting microgreens. Microgreens are herbs and vegetables harvested as seedlings, often 10 days to 2 weeks after planting. Generally, they can be harvested when 2-4” tall.

 Microgreens are also extra nutritious since vitamins and minerals are more concentrated than in mature, leafy crops. And they can pack intense flavor.

Good choices for microgreens include chia, cress, mustard greens, radish, arugula, borage, basil, cilantro and other leafy herbs. If you’re a novice at starting seeds, you might try broccoli, which germinates reliably and quickly produces a hearty sprout.

Whether you're growing standard herbs or microgreens, you’ll follow the same general procedures.

Growing site

Like most vegetables, herbs and microgreens like lots of light. They will need at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. A sunny windowsill near the kitchen is ideal.

Alternatively, you can use artificial lighting. In this case, follow the manufacturer's instructions for the grow lights. This will usually be 12-16 hours of light per day.

Planting the seeds or seedlings

Rather than starting a tray of seeds and thinning and transplanting the seedlings, it's more convenient to start the herbs or greens in small pots. If you’d like, you can choose decorative pots to add color to your kitchen decor. Be sure the pot has drainage holes and a saucer to catch excess water once the herbs or greens are maturing.

Purchase a soil-less potting mix or seed-starting mix. Select containers at least 4” deep. Fill the pot to about 1” from the top with moistened potting mix (water content should be similar to a wrung-out sponge.)

For herbs, use about 5 seeds per pot, but for microgreens, cover 1/3 to 1/2 of the soil surface with seeds. Gently press the seeds into the soil. Cover the seeds with around 1/8” of soil and mist the soil.

Most herb seeds are small. For larger seeds, you can speed up germination by soaking the seeds in water for 6–12 hours. Mixing seeds with fine sand can help with even distribution, and using a clear cover helps keep the seeds warm. Be sure to remove the cover once the seeds germinate.

Caring for the pots

Mist the containers regularly to keep the soil moist.

Once the seedlings appear, it’s useful to rotate the containers occasionally to allow all parts of the containers to receive equal sunlight.

It will generally not be necessary to fertilize the containers. However, if, for some reason, the herbs remain indoors and are not transplanted in the spring, consider adding some diluted vegetable fertilizer to replenish the nutrients in the planting mix.

Since plants dislike sitting in water, empty any standing water when using saucers.

Harvesting

As mentioned above, microgreens can be harvested when they are just 2” tall when the first true leaves appear, about 10 days after sowing. You will actually snip the first true leaves from the plant, leaving it no means of absorbing sunlight or photosynthesizing. Once snipped, microgreens will not re-grow. This is a key difference with herbs. When your crop of microgreens has been used, it’s time to compost the spent potting mix and start a new crop from seeds.

Herbs, on the other hand, need more time to mature. Trim only the top 1/3 of the herb plant at a time. This allows 2/3’s of the plant to remain and grow further. Thus, you can continue to harvest herbs throughout the winter season. And when spring arrives, you can opt to move them outside!

 

 

References/Links

How to Grow Microgreens webinar presented by UCMGCC Andrea Salzman

Microgreens are houseplants you can eat (UCANR)

Grow herbs! (UCCE Master Gardeners of Sacramento County)
https://sacmg.ucanr.edu/Grow_Herbs/

Winter Herbs Indoors (UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County)
https://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Food_Gardening/Additional_KG_Articles/Winter_Kitchen_Herb_Gardens/

Footnote 1: Common and Scientific names for Herbs (Herbaceous plants) mentioned in this article:

Chives ‘Allium schoenoprasum’
Basil ‘Ocimum Basilicum’
Lavender ‘Lavandula’
Parsley ‘Petroselinum Crispum’
Mint ‘Mentha’
Rosemary ‘Rosmarinus Officinalis’
Oregano ‘Origanum Vulgare’
Tarragon ‘Artemisia Dracunculus’
Sage ‘Salvia Officinalis’
Thyme ‘Thymus Vulgaris’
Cilantro ‘Coriandrum Sativum