Alfred Austin once wrote "Show me a garden and I shall tell you what you are". This demonstrates how passionate gardeners feel and how their gardens can become a reflection of themselves. Many people have indoor gardens and these gardens have a utility and joy that becomes more than pleasurable gardening. A kitchen garden can fill the air with sweet smells, herbs can be plucked easily for culinary purposes, for decoration or for use in homemade toiletries and skin care.

When setting out, the new herb garden enthusiast will likely choose the failsafe herbs, just like the pioneers did. There was a mix of herbs used by the pioneers - some were those brought carefully across the Atlantic from their country of origin, and others were those that had been long used by Native Americans. These were seasoning herbs and those that helped keep meat edible for the longest time. Both settlers and natives had medicinal herbs in their apothecary, and many happily shared their knowledge. Some of these cures have not stood up to scientific scrutiny, but still we tend to associate herbs with medicine.

West or south facing windows make good sites for small kitchen-sill herb planting. Should your kitchen really miss the sun during winter time then you might find a commercial grow-lamp from the garden center helps your herbs thrive. Soon enough your garden will grow and you may want to consider window-sill shelf units like those offered at http://www.indoorwindowgardening.com. These come with plant hanging options, and have clear plastic stages for your plants, adjustable by a cunning cable system that clips to special brackets on your window frames. Here is how to go about getting the initial planting right:

Use a planter with plenty of drainage holes since herbs don't like soggy roots. Set the planter on a drainage tray. Line the bottom of the pot with one inch of gravel. Mix potting soil two parts to one part sand. Sweeten each "5-inch" pot's worth of soil mixture with 1 tsp. of ground limestone.Put herbs that require the same amount of watering in prepared planter.

It also helps if you plan your garden in terms of how it is going to be used - are the herbs going to be purely aromatic or decorative or for cooking? Many herbs will fulfill all these criteria. For instance, basil, chives, marjoram, sage and mint are great for cooking, have beautiful flowers and smell great too. One way to plan which herbs you want is to look at them at your local store in the aisle with seasonings. Other herbs such as chive, thyme, saffron, dill and anise can be cut and used then or dried so that you can use them later.

'The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain a vocation, it becomes and obsession.' So said Phyllis McGinley, and if you start out with a wonderful selection of easy to grow herbs you may just find this coming true for you too!