Growing Herbs on the Windowsill - All Winter

Supermarket herbs die for a reason, and there are some rules to follow. The right spot, the right pot, and the two habits that keep a kitchen windowsill green from October to March.

The pot of basil from the supermarket that collapses after ten days is not your fault. Those plants are grown fast, packed tight, and sold before they are ready to live in a heated room over winter. Growing herbs on a windowsill works - it just needs a different setup from the one in the shop.

Pick the right herbs for winter

Some herbs shrug off winter decently indoors - parsley, chives, thyme, rosemary and mint. Basil is the weak link - it needs warmth and strong light, and most winter windowsills are too dark and too cool at night. If you want basil in winter, start with a young plant and keep it warm and bright, and expect it to be slow.

Light is the limiting factor

A windowsill gets a fraction of the light of a garden bed. Choose the brightest window you have - south-facing is ideal - and turn the pots a quarter-turn each week so they grow evenly, rather than leaning like they are looking for the door.

If your only window faces north, accept that winter herbs will be slow and leggy, or grow the tough ones - rosemary and thyme cope best in lower light.

Pots and compost

Small pots, 12-15cm, one plant per pot. Mix a handful of grit into multipurpose compost so it drains; herbs hate sitting wet. Make sure every pot has a drainage hole and a saucer, and empty the saucer so the roots are not paddling.

Watering - the one job that decides everything

Overwatering kills more windowsill herbs than anything else. Check the weight of the pot rather than the surface of the compost - a heavy pot is wet. Water thoroughly, let it drain, and wait until the top is dry to the touch before doing it again. In winter, that is usually once a week, sometimes less.

Feeding and harvesting

Little and rarely. A weak feed once a month in winter is plenty, herbs are not heavy feeders, and too much produces soft leaves and few of them.

Harvest by pinching the tips, never stripping a plant bare. Cutting the top of a stem makes it branch, which is what you want - pulling the whole leaf off just slows the plant down.

Pests, briefly

Aphids appear on new growth - squash them or wash them off. Fungus gnats - tiny black flies around the pot - mean the compost is staying wet so let it dry, and water from the saucer. Both are fixable in a minute, not a crisis.

Why it is worth the effort

A windowsill of parsley, chives and mint means fresh herbs through the winter without a supermarket trip, and the ten seconds of pinching twice a week is about the least demanding gardening there is. The main risk is expecting too much from a basil plant in a dark room - get the other three established first.

Growing in containers generally? The raised beds guide covers the same soil rules out in the garden, and the easiest vegetables picks the crops that tolerate a beginner.