How to grow fresh herbs at home?

Growing culinary herbs at home is one of the most tricky issue that any cooking lover encounter  sooner or later.

Before I finally found a way of dealing with this problem, i made researches, googled and watched several youtube videos but all didn't seem to succeed in my kitchen.

Seeing myself buying over and over again the same herbs 3 times a week brought me one morning to say :"And if i try keeping them this simple way?"




Which herbs are we talking about?

The herbs I use regularly are: "basil, oregano, rosemary and spring onions".  I usually buy them at a Fruit and Vegetables store not far from my house. They are sold in sealed packages and intended to be kept in a cold temperature once at home. Anyway, I broke that rule one morning and seeing the results, I no longer keep the herbs mentioned in the fridge. This is what I do:

The example shown here is based on rosemary.

The steps to follow are also applicable to basil and oregano.

1. Remove the excess leaves at the bottom of the stem and leave it leaves free.

2. Fill a cup with water ONLY up to the middle 

3. With kitchen scissors, cut the root of the "denuded" rosemary just a bit, at the end as if you were giving it a fresh new beginning :). Do the same with all the other branches.

4. Place the bunch of rosemary inside the cup of water

You're now done!

Apply the same method with oregano and basil, each herb in his own cup. A little remark though: when you buy those herbs, make sure you take a look at each one of them to find those packages that are presenting herb with the longest stems because they will be more suited to easily fit in a cup without the leaves being soaked in water.

As for spring onions, no need for you to cut the edges because we need those roots at the bottom. Try looking for those that still have roots. You can also keep leeks this way with their roots on ;)

Just wash the spring onion root under a tap water and later put them in a glass of water filled up to the middle. Having cleaned and made several cups of herbs, your result should be in the same format as the picture on your left.

Where should you keep your lovely herbs?

All of them, especially basil need a good source of light to keep growing efficiently that's why close to a window is the perfect place for them to be. Trust me, if there isn't enough light covering your window, this technique would not work.

How often do you recycle the water in the cups?

Once a day is the ideal schedule. But as we can be sometimes busy with other things, you can change the water of your plants once on three days. Failure to do so, the day you'll remember to change the water, you'll find it smelling and that's not good.

As I often say to my sisters, they should think of those plants as baby wearing diapers. They'll be healthy if they are often cleanup and changed. If you see some leaves turning yellow on the edge (spring onions) just cut, clean and put back :)

One more tip

For parsley lovers, apply the same rule but instead of keeping it outside the fridge, put it inside on the first or second layer. Parsley can in that condition go to up till a week, still being green and crispy. Unlike other herbs, parsley really need a cold environment.

Water is life!

It's said "Water is life" and that comes true in the kitchen with our precious herbs. Water contains nutrients that keep them growing indoors.

Happy to have helped, take good care of our precious herbs and you won't have to shop for them so many times a week :)

Aevermint