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inside herb garden

hello all,
im a new member, and new to gardening in general. i have a small patio garden atm, with parsley, chives, and basil. i have been growing it throughout the summer primarily for my bearded dragon.

being as the winter is coming (im from buffalo) i would like to try to grow some herbs/veggies indoors so i can continue to get cheap salads to my pet as well as me lol.

i wanted to know what i need to do to grow healthy plants indoors. can i literally bring them inside and set up a light for it? i was told that soil can create gnats, so i should try to use a different medium to grow in.

thanks for any help you can give me,
crazybob

ps. i have a planted 75g aquarium, so i have a general kowledge of lighting and nutrients.

pps. sorry for the long post lol

hi crazybob,

I think you'll find that it's entirely possible to grow herbs indoors in the winter. Some grow better indoors than others though. I think Basil would be difficult because it really needs a lot of sun and does well in heat.

But parsley, thyme, chives, oregano, and mint are good options. Try to give your herbs no less than 5 hours of sunlight a day at your windowsill. Or if you're going to be using fluorescent lights, keep the plants pretty close to the lights.

Use a good quality compost-based soil mix and make sure there is drainage. If you really want to treat your herbs well, give them a bit of fish emulsion once a month. And remember not to over water. Check the soil and if it's feeling dry then you know it's time to water. Hope it works out!

Hi CrazyBob
You can grow all sorts of herbs and vegetables indoors. all you need are seeds, pots and a good seed and cutting compost. Give them access to a sunny windowsill and water them regularly. also feed them with a dilute fertilizer once a week to keep them strong.

thyme is a good choice for indoor planting
Learn Gardening: Thyme
by the way, do you have any DIY fertiliser recipe for aquatic plants? i have a couple of planted tanks with DIY carbon dioxide injection.

Here is a recipe for you from aquaria.net:

Quote:

Into 2000 ml (2 liters, ie a large soda pop bottle) of distilled water dissolve:
61 g (11 teaspoons) Potassium nitrate (KNO3) - "Stump remover" (Source of "N", and "K")
5.2 g (1 teaspoons) Potassium monophosphate (KP04) - "Fleet enema" (Source of "K" and "P")
10.8 g (2 teaspoons) Magnesium sulphate - (MgSO4) - "Epsom salts" (Source of "Mg")
1.8 g (0.3 or 1/3 teaspoon) Potassium sulphate (KSO4) - (Source of "K")
These chemicals can be had at any decent hydroponics store, mail ordered or obtained from drug and hardware stores under the names given in quotes above. Adding that small amount of Potassium sulphate seems kind of silly to me given the amount of potassium available from the KO3 and KP04. It can safely be ignored.

Note that the solution may go a bit cloudy with age. A drop of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid will prevent that, but I don't bother. Double neck dosing bottles are a very convenient way to diespense this stuff. At least one commercial aquarium fertilizer is available in one and it's almost worth buying just for the bottle. The bottles themselves are also available by mail order. When I mix up two litres I put some in such a bottle and just leave the rest in a 2L soda pop bottle, properly labeled.

3 times a week add 10 ml for a 20 gallon tank. Or 1-2 ml daily. Or 15 ml twice a week. This will add 30 ppm nitrate a week to a tank with corresponding correct proportions for the other macronutrtients.

For a 100 gallon tank simply multiply by 5. For a 10 gallon tank divide by 2 and so on and so forth.

-- Richard Sexton, 2006

Here is a link that I think you will find useful.

Indoor Herb Garden | DoItYourself.com

I use a 65 Watt Fluorex light indoors for my herb garden. It gives off 4550 Photopic Lumens, so it's pretty bright and cheap to run. It stays cool to the touch, which is nice since you don't have to worry about overheating your grow space as much and you can keep the light closer to your plants. You can pick up one of these flood lights at Home Depot for about $45. Lights OF America 9266 65W Fluorex Floodlight Light

LED lights are substitute for sun.Flowering plants need a significant amount more light than vegetative plants, so it is highly advised to use an HPS system over your typical fluorescent or Metal Halide lighting systems.

I personally have never tried growing herbs inside but I bet it could be done by simply putting your containers near a window seal. As others have mentioned you can use a grow light but it all depends on how much trouble you want to go through setting something like that up. Would be interested to know what you decide to do though