The best way to grow herbs is in the indoors where climate control can work. I buy herbs from a fresh foods market and put them in a well lit sun room where it is warm. They grow fast and must be pruned often. A typical herb plant can last as long as 5 months if clipped and pruned as needed to let the other sprouts come up. Never let them bloom. If they bloom,their life span is nearing the end. I use a device called the aero garden that grows me beautiful herbs and for a long time. I live in the cold mountains of NC. It's a little harder to get herbs to produce, but it can be done. The further south and especially in FL., herbs will grow great with the climate.

I don't have much luck growing rosemary indoors.  But, then, I've never tried hydroponic gardening.  Rosemary seems to really hate getting pot bound.

I know that Rosemary doesn't like a lot of water. So I usually water and let the soil completely dry before watering again. Make sure the water is allowed to run off and pool in the pot. Rosemary likes a lot of sunlight. -- Chefdave

I am the master of allowing the soil to completely dry out!  And I always keep Rosemary in a terra cotta pot (rather than plastic).  I do try to give it a root pruning before it gets pot bound, but sometimes I let it get pot bound, then let it get too dry.  Once the roots get sick, the poor plant never recovers.  If I'm careful, the plant will make it through the winter inside with "bright indoor" light, and put on some growth in the summer.  I really love that aroma!

Perhaps this is unfair because I live in SW France but I have huge bay trees, rosemary plants, and fennel - the rest are moderate -  I have lots of sunshine normally (although this spring it has been lots of rain) and nothing seems to deter these herbs. My problem is basil - I use lots of it and have not found a way to keep it thriving - anyone any experience that will be useful. By the way the weather here is probably similar to Virgina or California in the states.

Ok - thanks for the fast response. I will pop in some more seeds outdoors and hope for the sunshine. I have pretty heavy soil - clay really so it takes a lot of working and compost adding but keeping fingers crossed. By the way I would like to include a recipe here - how is that done? (new user by the way and there are so many features here it is a bit confusing)

To post a new recipe, visit http://www.bigoven.com/private/sec/sharearecipe.aspx.

Then, to add it to this "group", you can either visit the main group page and look on the right hand side and click the "select..." button, then click "Add"... Or, from the recipe page itself, on the right hand side of the recipe page, you'll see an option to add it to any of the discussion groups to which you currently belong.  Hope that helps.

I tried to do this from the recipe page and checked all the boxes but there were still two check marks red and the postit was still grey. I had checked main ingredient - apples - cuisne - English , Edited tags to show 5 categories - and these two sections remained checked red (I assume errors) - ut in time and notes --- OK if you like we can move this to problems area rather than cluttering up this discussion ... please advise. Thanks