London Herb Gardens

How to make a herb garden for your London flat

Living in the city is a unique and wonderful experience but the lack of outdoor space you have available can be stifling. You might want to create a green paradise in which to escape the heat or encompass as much of nature as possible in your flat. A herb garden is a unique way to do this.

Follow these four simple steps and you’ll have a beautiful herb garden sitting on your windowsill in no time which all the family can enjoy. 

1. Find your ‘garden’

Unfortunately, if you are planting from your flat you won’t have any ground to plant into. Find a ‘garden’ alternative that will work best for you and your living space. Whether this is a window box or individual plant pots per herb, just make sure the situation suits you and the herbs you are going to be planting. It can be something all the family can get involved with together – either by making a window box from scratch or decorating and painting plain plant pots.

2. Pick your herbs

Herb gardens do introduce a bit of greenery into your home, but if you want to use it as a functioning herb garden you should pick herbs you love and know you will use. Popular choices for herb gardens are basil, cilantro, dill, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme. You don’t need to include all of these, but they offer a bit of a variety to your garden and they will all thrive in a window sill setting.

3. Plants or seeds? 

Once you’ve chosen which herbs you want to include in your windowsill herb garden, you need to decide whether you want to start from scratch or just work with plants. Annual herbs are easy to grow from scratch but you will need to replant the following spring. Perennial herbs, on the other hand, last longer but they do take longer to germinate, meaning you will be waiting longer for your delicious herbs! You can also skip seeds altogether by planting plants which are widely available from supermarkets and garden centres. Labelling your individual herbs also helps you to identify them once planted.

4. Finding sunlight

Some herbs - particularly rosemary, thyme, sage and mint - require a lot of sunlight to grow, so take this into account when deciding where to plant your herb garden. Try to opt for a south-facing window which might mean your kitchen may not be the best option for growing herbs if doesn’t face that way. Having your herbs in individual plant pots is an advantage here as you can factor in each individual herb's needs when positioning it within your flat. 

Having a herb garden is something that is worth your time and money and super easy to do - even if you do live in a rooftop London flat!