DIY Herb Garden for Beginners: How to Start an Indoor Herb Garden With No Experience

To start a DIY herb garden indoors, pick three forgiving herbs (basil, mint and chives), buy them as small starter plants, give each one its own 4 to 6 inch pot with drainage holes and indoor potting mix, and set them in your sunniest window. Water only when the top inch of soil feels dry, and never harvest more than a third of a plant at once. That is the whole system, and you can set it up for roughly $10 to $25.

You don’t need a yard, a balcony or a green thumb. An indoor herb garden can live on a kitchen windowsill, a narrow shelf or a countertop under a small grow light. Most beginners who fail do so in the first couple of weeks, and almost always for the same few reasons: too little light, too much water, or a crowded supermarket pot that was never meant to last.

This guide walks you through every step from scratch, then covers two things most beginner guides skip: easy DIY herb garden builds using things you may already own, and whether a basil grow kit or countertop herb kit is worth buying instead. For more beginner herb guides, browse our herb gardening section.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

You don’t need to buy everything at once. Here is a simple starter list:

• 3 small pots, 4 to 6 inches across, each with a drainage hole
• Indoor potting mix, not garden soil. Garden soil packs down hard in pots and drains poorly indoors.
• 3 starter herb plants (plants, not seeds, more on why below)
• A tray or saucers to catch water
• A watering can or a cup with a narrow spout

That really is it. No grow light is needed if you have a bright window, no fertilizer in the first month, and no special tools. Expect to spend about $10 to $25 depending on where you buy your plants and pots.

Step 1: Choose the Right Herbs for Indoors

The most common beginner mistake is picking the wrong herbs. Some herbs need full outdoor sun, steady airflow or very precise watering, and a kitchen shelf can’t give them that. Start with these three, which are among the herbs Iowa State University Extension lists as good first choices for growing indoors:

Basil

Basil loves warmth and bright light. It grows fast, so you see new leaves quickly, which makes it satisfying for beginners. The catch: it dislikes cold and soggy soil. Keep it away from air conditioning vents and cold glass in winter. The University of Vermont Extension notes that basil is more sensitive to cool temperatures than most herbs (UVM Extension guide).

Mint

Mint is very hard to kill. It handles partial light, forgives the odd missed watering and spreads fast, which is actually useful in a pot because it fills out and looks lush. Keep it in its own pot, though. Mint will crowd out anything planted with it.

Chives

Chives grow more slowly than basil or mint but cope with lower light better than most herbs and regrow after every cut. Keep the soil lightly moist rather than bone dry. Chives are toxic to cats and dogs, so skip them if you have pets that chew plants (see the pet safety section below).

Leave these for later: rosemary (fussy indoors, it should never dry out completely yet hates soggy soil), cilantro (tends to bolt and go to seed quickly in warm rooms) and thyme (needs very bright light and sharp drainage).

Step 2: Buy Plants, Not Seeds

Seeds are cheaper, but they add several weeks of waiting and fail more often for first timers, and you usually can’t tell what went wrong until it is too late.

Starter plants, the small potted herbs sold at supermarkets and garden centers, give you a result right away. You can take a light harvest within days. Once you know how herbs behave in your space, seeds (or a seed kit) are a fun next step.

Where to find starter plants:

• Supermarkets (often sold as “living herbs” in the produce section)
• Garden centers and nurseries
• Farmers markets in spring and summer

One important note about supermarket herbs: they are usually many seedlings crammed into one small pot and grown fast to look good on the shelf. They are not set up to last. When you get them home, gently divide the clump into 2 or 3 smaller portions and pot each one separately. Each plant gets room for its roots, and the herbs last far longer.

Step 3: Pick the Right Spot

Light is the one thing you can’t skip. Iowa State University Extension says most herbs need around eight hours of direct light a day indoors, and some tolerate as little as six (source). Your brightest window is the place to start.

Best spots, in order:

1. South-facing window: the most light through the day (best)
2. West-facing window: strong afternoon sun (good)
3. East-facing window: gentler morning sun (fine for mint, chives and parsley)
4. North-facing window: low light, really only suitable for mint and chives, or use a grow light

No good window? Use a grow light. Iowa State recommends placing lights within 6 to 12 inches of the leaves and running them 12 to 16 hours a day on a timer. A simple LED grow bulb in a clip lamp is enough for a three-pot setup.

Keep herbs away from:

• Radiators and heat vents, which dry out soil and leaves fast
• Air conditioning vents, as cold air shocks basil in particular
• Drafty, cold glass in winter

Normal indoor temperatures suit most herbs. The UVM Extension guide suggests about 65 to 70°F during the day and a little cooler at night.

Step 4: Plant Them Correctly

Fill your pot about two-thirds with potting mix. Set the plant in the center, then fill in around it. The top of the root ball should sit about 1 inch below the rim so water soaks in instead of running off.

The most important thing: every pot needs a drainage hole. Herbs sitting in waterlogged soil rot from the roots up. If you love a pot with no hole, use it as a decorative outer pot and keep the herb in a plain plastic nursery pot inside it.

Press the soil gently around the base of the plant, then water thoroughly until water runs out of the bottom. Let it drain completely before setting the pot back on its saucer.

Step 5: Water Correctly (This Is Where Most Beginners Go Wrong)

Overwatering kills more indoor herbs than anything else. An overwatered herb droops and yellows, which looks a lot like a thirsty one, so many people water again and make things worse.

The correct approach:

1. Push a finger about 1 inch into the soil.
2. If it feels damp, wait.
3. If it feels dry, water slowly until it drains from the bottom.
4. Empty the saucer after about 30 minutes. Roots should never sit in standing water.

A rough starting guide:

These are starting points only. Pot size, potting mix, warmth and sunlight all change how fast soil dries. Always check the soil first instead of watering on a fixed day.

Step 6: Harvest the Right Way

Regular harvesting makes herbs grow bushier. Cutting the wrong way, or letting them flower, slows them down.

Basil: cut just above a pair of leaves, never leave bare stems. Pinch off flower buds as soon as you see them. UVM Extension notes that basil allowed to go to seed can become woody, less productive and bitter.

Mint: cut stems back by about a third. The more you harvest, the fuller it gets.

Chives: snip from the top with scissors, leaving at least 2 inches at the base. They regrow within a week or two.

Whatever the herb, never take more than a third of the plant at once, and give it time to recover before the next harvest.

DIY Herb Garden Ideas You Can Build in an Afternoon

A DIY herb garden doesn’t have to mean a big woodworking project. The best builds are cheap, fit your window and, most importantly, let water drain. Here are five easy ideas for small spaces.

1. Mason Jar Herb Garden

Jars look great on a sill, but they have no drainage hole, and adding pebbles to the bottom doesn’t fix that because water still collects around the roots. The reliable version: slip a small plastic nursery pot inside each jar so you can lift it out to water and drain it in the sink.

2. Upcycled Tin Can Planters

Clean food cans make a neat row of matching planters. Punch or drill three or four holes in the base, file any sharp edges, and stand them on a tray. Metal heats up in strong sun, so keep them out of hot afternoon glass in summer.

3. Windowsill Box or Wooden Crate Trio

A narrow window box or small wooden crate lined with three nursery pots gives you a tidy, single-unit herb garden. Keep the herbs in separate pots inside the box so each one can be watered to its own needs, and mint can’t take over.

4. Wall Rail or Hanging Herb Garden

No sill space? A kitchen rail with hanging pots, or a hanging tiered planter in front of a bright window, keeps herbs off the counter. Hang it where you can reach it easily, or you will forget to check the soil.

5. Shelf With a Clip-On Grow Light

For a dark apartment, a small shelf or the top of a cabinet plus a clip-on LED grow light on a timer makes a year-round herb station. This is the most dependable setup if your windows face north or are shaded by buildings. Our guide to the easiest indoor plants to keep alive covers other plants that suit lower light.

How to Build a Simple 3-Pot DIY Herb Garden

1. Measure your windowsill depth and choose pots or a box that fit without hanging over the edge.
2. Check every container has a drainage hole, or add a nursery pot inside it.
3. Fill each pot two-thirds with indoor potting mix.
4. Divide supermarket herbs if needed, then plant one herb per pot.
5. Water each pot until it drains, then set them on a tray in your brightest window.
6. Label the pots and check the soil with your finger every day or two.

Basil Grow Kit vs DIY Setup: Which Should You Choose?

Herb grow kits range from a simple pouch of seeds and soil to a countertop garden with its own built-in light. A basil grow kit is one of the most popular types because basil sprouts fast and is easy to use. Here is how the main options compare with a DIY setup.

Which one makes sense? If you have a bright south or west window, a DIY setup with starter plants gets you harvesting fastest and costs the least. If your space is dark, a countertop hydroponic herb kit with a built-in grow light solves the light problem in one purchase, and it is the option we would point a beginner in a dim apartment toward.

Tips if you buy a basil grow kit:

• Sow only a few seeds per pot and thin to the strongest one or two seedlings, or they will crowd each other.
• Keep the kit somewhere warm. Basil seeds are slow to sprout in a cold room.
• If the kit pot has no drainage hole, water lightly and tip out any standing water.
• Once seedlings have several sets of true leaves, pinch the top to make the plant branch.

Pet Safety: Which Kitchen Herbs Are Safe Around Cats and Dogs?

If you share your home with pets, check your herb list before you buy. Our guide to whether basil is toxic to cats covers more herbs and what to do if your cat eats one. According to the ASPCA:

Chives belong to the onion family, and the ASPCA lists signs such as vomiting, red blood cell damage and weakness. If you have a cat or dog that nibbles plants, swap chives for basil or parsley, or keep herbs on a high shelf or in a hanging planter. If you think your pet has eaten a toxic plant, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435. Our guide to whether pothos is toxic to cats has more tips on keeping cats away from plants.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Keeping supermarket herbs in their original pot. They are usually many small plants crammed together. Divide and repot them the day you bring them home.

2. Watering on a fixed schedule instead of checking the soil. A Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine might work in summer but can rot roots in winter when growth slows.

3. Putting herbs in a dim corner. Herbs are not low-light decor plants. Light is their food, and a dark corner slowly starves them.

4. Letting basil flower. Pinch off flower buds as soon as they appear, or the plant shifts its energy into seeds and the leaves turn sparse and bitter.

5. Using garden soil from outside. It compacts in pots, drains poorly and can bring in pests. Use indoor potting mix.

6. Choosing a pretty container with no drainage. This is the most common DIY herb garden mistake. If there is no hole, use a nursery pot inside it.

If an herb has already collapsed from soggy soil, our step-by-step guide on how to fix root rot in indoor plants walks you through the rescue.

Your First Week: What to Expect

Days 1 to 2: herbs may droop a little after the move. This is normal while they adjust. Don’t water again unless the soil is dry.

Days 3 to 5: plants usually perk up and stand upright again. Mint often shows new growth first.

Day 7: in a bright spot you should see fresh leaves. You can take a small harvest of mint or chives.

Yellow leaves in week one? Check for water sitting in the saucer. Tip it out and let the soil dry for a few days before watering again.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make my own herb garden indoors?

Choose 3 easy herbs (basil, mint and chives or parsley), pot each in a container with a drainage hole using indoor potting mix, place them in your sunniest window or under a grow light, and water only when the top inch of soil is dry. The DIY ideas above show cheap containers you can use.

Can I grow herbs indoors without sunlight?

Not well without a grow light. Mint and chives cope with lower light but grow slowly and get leggy. A basic LED grow light 6 to 12 inches above the leaves for 12 to 16 hours a day solves this.

Are herb grow kits worth it?

They are worth it if you lack a sunny window (a countertop kit with a built-in light) or want a fun seed-starting project. If you already have good light, starter plants in your own pots are cheaper and give you a harvest much sooner.

How long do indoor herbs last?

Basil is an annual, so it lasts a season, often several months indoors if you keep pinching off flowers. Mint and chives are perennials and can keep going for years with repotting and regular trimming.

Do I need to fertilize indoor herbs?

Not in the first month. After that, Iowa State Extension suggests a light feed of all-purpose fertilizer at half or quarter strength from early spring through summer, and none in winter.

Can I grow different herbs in the same pot?

You can, but it is harder for beginners because herbs have different water needs and mint will take over. Separate pots, even inside one box or crate, give you more control.

What to Do Next

Once your first three herbs are settled and you have the habit of checking them, you are ready to expand:

• Add a grow light if your natural light is limited, which opens up more herb choices.
• Try a seed kit or a basil grow kit now that you know what healthy seedlings should look like.
• Root basil cuttings in a glass of water. Take a 4 inch stem, strip the lower leaves and roots usually appear within one to two weeks. It is the same water-rooting idea as propagating pothos.
• Try a compact chili pepper plant, which follows the same warm, bright care as basil.

Most of all, look at your herbs every day. Not to do anything, just to notice. You will learn to read droops, yellow leaves and new growth faster than any guide can teach you, and you will catch problems while they are still easy to fix.