You can grow a kitchen garden on your windowsill with just a few old containers, some soil, and seeds. In a few weeks you will be cutting your own herbs to put in food — and they grow back every time you cut them!
🌱 Best starter herbs
- 🌿 Mint — grows like crazy, smells amazing, great in cold water and tea
- 🫙 Basil — loves warmth and sun, perfect with tomatoes and pasta
- 🌱 Chives — looks like little grass, tastes like mild onion, chop into anything
- 🌼 Parsley — easy and tough, adds flavour to almost everything
🛒 What you need
- Old yoghurt containers, tin cans, or cups with holes poked in the bottom
- Good potting soil
- Herb seeds (very cheap at nurseries) or a small herb plant from the supermarket
- A sunny windowsill
- A small watering can or cup for watering
How to set it up
- Ask a grown-up to poke 3–4 holes in the bottom of your containers — this lets water drain out so roots do not rot.
- Fill with soil to about 2cm from the top.
- Sprinkle seeds lightly on the surface and cover with a thin layer of soil (or plant a small seedling from the shop).
- Water gently and place on a sunny windowsill.
- Keep the soil just damp — not soggy, not dry.
🌟 The cool part — cutting makes them grow MORE
Unlike most things, the more you cut herbs, the more they grow! This is called pruning. When you cut a stem, the plant grows two new stems in its place. Always cut just above a leaf pair, and never cut more than one-third of the plant at once. The more you use it, the bigger it gets.
🍃 Fun challenge
Label each container with the herb name and the date you planted it. Draw a picture of the plant on the label. Check it every 3 days and write down what changed. When you harvest your first herbs, cook something with them and tell your family that you grew the ingredients!
