A Quick Guide to Growing and Drying Your Own Herbs Indoors

Herbs are something that can be grown in any household, even if you don’t have a garden. A balcony or windowsill are also ideal locations and most herbs will grow absolutely fine in pots, without needing to be planted out in the ground. Fresh herbs make a room smell pleasant and are great for adding to cooking. It’s much cheaper to grow your own than buy them, and if you grow more than you need, you can dry and store them. Some herbs also have other uses, for example various herbs are used to make teas and infusions, basil, mint, rosemary and others repel flies and other insects [1], and dried lavender is used to aid sleep and keep moths away [2].

Growing herbs indoors is simple and requires little effort. Here are a few guidelines:

Generally, any herb you could grow outside in a container can be grown in a pot inside.
Packets will give guidelines on when to plant herbs indoors and outdoors, and as growing inside removes the seasonal element, many can be sown indoors at any time of year.
If you know someone who has a plant already growing, or want to increase the number you have of a plant you’ve already grown, you can grow a new plant from a cutting. This works best in summer when the plants are growing healthy new shoots. Cut healthy shoots about 10 cm (4 inches) long below a leaf joint, and remove the lower leaves from the cutting. If you want to grow several cuttings, they can be planted around the edge of one pot of compost, and then moved to individual pots after about 8 weeks [3]. Some people like to use hormone rooting powder to help the cuttings take root, but this is not essential.
Generally, herbs just need light and water. A windowsill, out of direct sunlight if possible, and weekly watering should be enough to keep the herbs healthy (although if the soil dries out before the end of the week, they need watering more often) [4]. If you want to concentrate on and cultivate particular types of herb, more specific advice is readily available, along with advice on harvesting, and culinary and other uses [5].
Pinching out growing shoots will encourage plants to grow in a more bush-like form, rather than becoming leggy, and helps keep them under control.
Fresh leaves can be harvested when you’re ready to use them for cooking or drying. They should be nipped out, with the stalk, back to the next pair of leaves or the stem. Again, more specific information about picking each type of herb to encourage healthy and controllable regrowth is available online [6].

Drying your herbs for later use:

There are a couple of options for drying your herbs. Air drying uses the least energy, and is best for preserving the flavour of the herbs as using the oven or microwave will cook them slightly [7], however these are useful options if you need to dry the herbs quickly or have nowhere to hang them to dry.
If you choose to use the oven, dry your herbs in it when you’ve just used it to cook something else (this will save energy as you’ll have been using the oven anyway). When the temperature has cooled to between about 45^oC and 55^oC, spread your herbs out on a baking tray and leave them in the oven to dry out [8]. You need to do this until they are completely dry and crispy.
If you want to dry them very quickly, you can do this within about three minutes using a microwave. Microwave them on high power for one minute, then intervals of 30 seconds, moving them around in between until they’re dry [8].
To air dry them instead, tie them in bunches, place them in a paper bag to catch any leaves that fall off, hang them somewhere where fresh air circulates easily, such as near a doorway, and leave them until they have thoroughly dried. This can take days to weeks depending on the type of herb, as some contain more oils than others. Some people advise blanching them in boiling water first [8].
Store them in dry, airtight containers. The containers must be completely dry too, or the herbs might become mouldy. If you’re using cleaned out glass jars, you can also dry them in the oven when it’s cooling down after cooking. Store the herbs somewhere cool, away from direct sunlight.
Leaving the dried leaves whole and only crushing them when you’re ready to use them will preserve more flavour, as will using them within a year or so [7].
Remember that dried herbs have a stronger flavour then fresh, so you don’t need to use as much in cooking!