Fresh Herbs All Winter: Your Windowsill Herb Garden

There's something wonderful about snipping fresh herbs in the middle of a Canadian winter. Outside, it's snow and minus twenty. Inside, your kitchen smells like summer. If you've never grown herbs indoors, November is a perfect time to start — the days are shorter, the garden is tucked in, and a little green on the windowsill is good for the soul.

Pick the right herbs

Start with the forgiving ones. Chives, parsley and mint are wonderfully patient indoors, and basil does well too if it gets enough light. Woody herbs like rosemary and thyme also adapt nicely to pots, though they like to stay on the drier side. If you're just starting out, choose three herbs you actually cook with — you'll use them, and that's the whole point.

Give them light — lots of it

Light is the one thing you can't fake with good intentions. A south-facing windowsill is ideal in Canada, giving your herbs the strongest winter sun we get. If your windows face another way, or the days feel especially grey, a simple grow light for a few hours a day makes all the difference. Turn pots a quarter-turn every few days so plants grow straight instead of leaning toward the glass.

Water wisely, feed lightly

Indoor herbs would much rather be a little dry than soggy. Water when the top couple of centimetres of soil feel dry, and always let pots drain — herbs sitting in water will sulk fast. In winter, growth slows down, so feed only lightly, about once a month with a diluted liquid feed, if at all. Snip regularly, too: harvesting is pruning, and a well-snipped plant grows bushier and fuller.

What to grow first

If you're choosing just three pots to start, here's a combination that works beautifully together in the kitchen. Chives are nearly indestructible and bounce back quickly after snipping, which makes them wonderfully forgiving for beginners. Parsley is slower to start from seed, so be patient with it — once it's going, it produces steadily for months. Dill is a little more delicate and likes consistent moisture, but its feathery fronds are so worth it in soups, salads and fish dishes. Together, they cover most everyday cooking, and they look lovely grouped on a sunny sill. Start them in separate pots so you can water each one the way it likes best, and label them — seedlings all look alike at first, and a little marker saves a lot of guessing.

Keep them happy through the cold months

Watch out for cold drafts from the window on bitter nights — a sheer curtain between plant and glass, or moving pots back a few centimetres on the coldest nights, is enough. Keep herbs away from hot, dry radiators as well. And don't worry if growth slows in December and January; as the days lengthen in February, your plants will pick up again, just like the garden outside.

If you'd love a ready-to-go start, our Indoor Herb Garden Starter Kit comes with parsley, chives and dill seeds, pots, starter soil pods and plant markers — everything you need to get that windowsill going. It's also a lovely gift for the cook in your life.

A windowsill herb garden won't replace the summer garden, and it doesn't need to. It's a small, bright, everyday joy — fresh flavour in your soup, your eggs, your roast potatoes, all winter long. Happy growing, friends.