Growing herbs for cooking is typically associated with warm spring and summer weather but what do you do when you want fresh herbs during the dead of winter? With an indoor culinary herb garden, you can have tasty, fresh flavor year round. Imagine homemade salsa with fresh cilantro or roasted chicken with rosemary. You can shell out the extra bucks and purchase herbs in the grocery store or invest a little time and money in an indoor kitchen herb garden and reap the "fruits" of your labor for months.

Do-It-Yourself Kits

The advent of indoor culinary herb garden starter kits was a big boon for amateur chefs with black thumbs in the garden. A number of these do-it-yourself herb growing kits for indoors are on the market today and many of them are so easy to use, even a young child could do it. As long as you can water and feed the herbs at the appropriate times, within a month you could start trimming some of your herbs for use.

Most of these kits start off with a large tray to start the herbs, using peat starter pellets, a greenhouse-like dome and plant food. Once the herbs become seedlings, they are then transferred into pots. People with space issues like those in condos or apartments might consider an indoor culinary herb garden grown in stackable pots. And because a few herbs are not just for cooking but for other uses, you might distribute them in separate pots to place throughout the home. Rosemary and mint are two herbs that smell wonderful as they grow and could really "spice" up a room.

Benefits for Cultivating Your Own Herbs

A few favorite herbs that find their way into many indoor culinary herb gardens include chives, basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, marjoram and dill. Oregano, sage, tarragon and mint are other herbs that many amateur chefs love to have in their kitchen. All the chefs have to do is pinch or cut off what they need without breaking stride when following a recipe – no special preparation is needed.

When you grow herbs outdoors, they are susceptible not only to weather but pesticides, bugs and the abuse from animals. However with an indoor culinary herb garden, you do not have to worry about any chemicals or destructive animals. And of course, the weather is not an issue, although you need to take care to place the herbs in sunlight for as long as possible for optimal growth.

Having an indoor culinary herb garden will likely prompt you to experiment with new dishes and incorporate the herbs in more foods as well. The extra effort is well worth it when you create wonderful dishes with a taste that lingers on the tastebuds.