For the black thumbs or green thumb challenged, this Kitchen Herb Windowsill Garden Kit is a great way to start growing your own fresh herbs at home. Everything you need is provided, including good quality soil, and all you need to do is follow the instructions and water it to have fresh herbs on demand.
This is such a simple way to begin gardening and gain confidence in growing some of your own food.
You just can't beat the flavour of freshly picked herbs and they make the best tasting dried herbs too. Herbs are pretty difficult to buy plastic free, and can be a source of frustration when you want to be more zero waste without giving up your favourite foods.
I actually bought this kit as a gift but then decided to keep it for myself, the green pot is just so cute.
I like to know exactly what I'm getting when I purchase something like this, so I'm going to take you through step by step what is in the box and how easy it is to use and grow your herbs.
This particular one can be found here, but here, but there are many like it on the market.
Here's what the kitchen Herbs Kit looks like and as you can see, it doesn't come with a heap of packaging, which I love! Also, as the pot is metal I know it will last forever and not become cracked or brittle like plastic pots.
On the back of the kit, it has all the information on what 's included and explains that it has everything you need to get started. (You just add water and sunlight!)
When you open it, you can see it does contain 1 little plastic bag to hold the soil pellets and the seeds are in foil packets, but overall it has very little waste. (This bag can be recycled via REDcycle)
You get:
3 Soil Pellets
3 Packets of seeds (Chives, Basil and Parsley)
3 blackboard plant markers
A stick of chalk
plus the metal pot and base
The plant markers can be used for any seeds you want to plant in the future too as all you need to do is wipe the chalk off with a damp cloth.
Inside the cardboard wrap are the detailed instructions, including how long you will need to wait for you herbs to sprout, and they really are easy to follow.
It does say to fertilise, but I haven't bothered and it seems to be fine.
First, start by soaking the soil pellets in 600mls of water.
I did this in a separate container as the tin has drainage holes. (This soil comes in a dried compressed form in case you're wondering)
Leave for 10 minutes, I set the timer do I didn't forget and start some other project while I was waiting.
Here the pellets have soaked up all the water and have quadrupled in size, but still had some residual water.
Stir the soil with a fork and make sure it is all wet through.
Now just place the soil into the tin and even up the surface a little so you have a flat layer of soil to work with
Carefully open up your seed packets and begin planting. As you can see, plenty of seeds are provided and I used all of them as recommended.
Oh, and Don't forget to write on your chalkboard markers when you're planting.
Now just water it every few days and wait. You want to keep the soil moist but check the base to make sure you aren't over watering and getting a lot coming through the drainage holes. Just tip out any excess water.
In no time you'll get your first seedlings sprouting, and in a few weeks you'll be able to start using the herbs in cooking or for garnishes.
I love herbs so much, and the quantity grown is probably more suitable for garnishing than herb heavy recipes. This is such a great option for anyone just starting out or wants a simple windowsill garden with very little effort. (It would also make a great gift, if you can bear to part with it!)
Once your herbs have grown and been eaten, you can purchase more seeds from your local garden shop, or a local seed swap group and begin again using the same soil.
In hindsight I probably should have saved a portion of the basil and parsley seeds as they did overcrowd the chives a little. The parsely has really taken off!
This brand also has a Lavender kit and a strawberry windowsill pot which I found in an opshop recently, lucky score! This means I won't be fighting the birds for the fruit as the pot will be indoors, and it's a fun activity to do with kids. They can help prepare, plant and watch as the fruit begins to grow and ripen and it helps to build an understanding of the effort that goes into growing food (and hopefully helps explain why we don't want to waste food).
The other thing I really like about this is that the pot becomes a handy place to tip out tiny amounts of water left in drink bottles. Although it's not exactly doing a lot to save water, it makes me happy that it's being used productively.
So, if you do want to start growing some kitchen windowsill herbs, this kit is a Super simple way to begin even if you are a terrible gardener, you are almost guaranteed success.
What are your favourite kitchen herbs to use that you would love to have growing on your windowsill?
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