Growing plants indoors can help you unwind from a stressful day at work, it can give you fresh herbs to cook with, so what else can it do…
What are the benefits of an indoor herb garden: The benefits of an indoor herb garden include:
- Reducing stress
- Fresh herbs to cook with
- Easy to maintain
- Grown hydroponically – very clean
I had added cleaning the air and increasing the oxygen levels, but in my investigation i found that the herbs did very little to clean the air and you need tons of growth to increase the oxygen level significantly. So lets see what i found about the others.
How can you benefits for growing herbs indoors
I talked above about how indoor herb gardens can benefit you, lets look in more detail at how they achieve this.
How plants reduce stress
Most herbs have green leaves.
Green is the color most of us associate with forest, grass, outdoors.
And it has been proven that the color green has a relaxing, restful, quieting effect on us as we gaze upon the color.
This is one of the reasons waiting rooms are painted green.
But as you look at your herbs, seeing how they are growing – whether anything is wrong, whether you can harvest more tonight, your brain and body are starting to relax and calm.
As you walk away the stresses of the day are starting to vanish.
Long live the herbs…..
Cooking with herbs can help you stay healthy
Growing herbs indoors is one thing , but using them in cooking is another.
Growing basil to tear up and scatter on a pizza, or as a garnish for tomato soup fresh from the plant.
Chopping chives as a topping for egg dishes – or added to salads to give that onion flavor.
Parsley as a pesto for enhancing the flavor of fish.
All of these herbs, picked fresh when you are cooking will have the highest levels of antioxidants.
After being picked for a while, like grabbing a bunch at the supermarket, or dried, form the jars – these have some health benefits and flavor, but nothing like the fresh versions.
Imagine the whole kitchen being filled with the smell of fresh basil as you create your own Pesto.
So growing herbs where you can get at them easily, whatever the weather will allow you to use them more, giving you more of the benefits of being at their peak.
How long does it take to maintain an indoor garden
Potting up seeds in the spring, before the last frost and placing them in the sunny window.
Watching them daily for the first signs of green, knowing that in a few months you will have fresh fragrant herbs – ripe for picking.
But you can get bugs on them – even indoors.
These can be relatively easily got rid of- well most of them – others are controlled.
The fact that the pots are at hand height rather than having to kneel down outside makes looking after them easier.
A little bit of water, a tweak or a dead leaf, popping out that little weed…
And onto the next one…
Is there an even easier way to get the benefits of herbs indoors
All these pots around and a lack of sunny windowsills means that your herbs won’t grow to their fullest.
Wondering whether the potting compost you use has all the goodness that your plants need means that at some point you will probably feed them.
Is there an easier way to benefit from growing herbs indoors.
Yes there is, grow them hydroponically.
If you use a complete unit designed to give your plants the best of light, food and air – they will reward you by growing their best.
This takes away the reliance on a sunny window or having to check their water twice a day on a hot sunny day.
Fill up the reservoir and off you go.
Check on them when you get back, stroke their leaves – smell their fragrance released.
The fact that there will be no weeds, no dirt under the fingernails.
Only nutrient mix to replace every few weeks.
A grow light to adjust to keep your plants growing to their max.
A little pruning and now some cooking….
Growing more in a smaller space in a shorter time are claims of hydroponics and they are true.
In just 15 x 8 x 6 inches you can grow seven types of herbs, from chives to basil, to parsley, to chili’s, to oregano, to thyme, to mint, to having a whole bowl full of strawberries.
All grown wherever you want to in the house.
With the benefits of planting the seeds and seeing the plants shoot up, maturing earlier and year round.
Imaging growing lettuce in the winter, keeping basil alive year round, along with chili’s.
Harvesting the chili’s and freezing them or gifting them – who’s brave enough to try your fresh, fragrant, chili’s…..
Once setup the lights are automatically switched on and off at an optimum growing cycle.
The nutrient is circulated as the plants needs it.
There are no small plant pots to knock over, soil spilling everywhere and the plant laying there.
Would i recommend it – definitely yes.
Start with a small unit to grow a basil, maybe a thyme and some chives, if these are what you would use in cooking.
Or a chili plant.
Or maybe plucking a few cherry tomatoes is your thing, so grab a slightly larger unit to grow these along with a basil plant.
When can you start – you don’t need to wait for the weather to clear, so you can start anytime.
You can, of course, use it as a starter for outdoor plants, start even earlier than in pots as most of these units have a heater built in…
Can having indoor herb improve your environment
As talked about briefly at the beginning i was going to include the reduction of toxic gases and increases in oxygen levels, but had these dismissed with so few plants as to not be a real benefit.
But one i hadn’t seen dismissed is the release of water vapor to add humidity to your atmosphere.
Plants release about 97% of the water they take up as water vapor.
In the winter with the heating drying your air out , this will be very welcome.
Reducing the instances of dry coughs, sore throats and other such ailments.
To get the best out of the plants you need to grow large leafed herbs like basil or mint, the likes of the oregano, thyme or rosemary will do the same job, but will not release as much humidity.
So finally
I hope you have got something out of growing indoor herbs and maybe are going to try starting an indoor hydroponics unit to find out how easy it is to grow and maintain.
I used to plant up a pot with a few seeds , water it, leave in on the windowsill to germinate and…forget about it.
Coming back to it when the soil was like dust, there was little chance of the seeds now germinating.
After i changed to the Aerogardens , I now tend the plants daily, adding a little water or every two weeks or so changing their nutrients.
Watching the chili plants new leaf growth and flowers open, with little for me to do except wait for the crop of chili’s i know will be coming.
Or the new alpine strawberry unit, with the flowers now open, me being the bee, pollinating the flowers – looking forward to the little treats of the strawberries….
If you start growing the herbs in the kitchen, then there is every chance you will use them in your cooking – or sandwiches – fresh from the plants.
You will be amazed by the flavor, if not stress them a bit – this tends to improve the flavor – maybe they have had just a little bit too easy a life……
It is all in your hands.
Thanks for reading
phil
I have been growing plants hydroponically since 2009. For years before that i was reading books and looking at systems and saying ...no way...
But once i had taken the plunge with the tomatoes outside, then there was no stopping me.
I tried out most of the systems and started to refine them, getting the plants to grow more efficiently.
Now I am more interested in indoor hydroponics and the challenges it presents. Being able to control the environment, feeding the correct nutrients and giving the correct length and type of lighting....