I have some basil and parsley on my counter by a south facing window and they seem to be doing all right.

My herb garden here in Michigan is pretty much frozen, so I dry most herbs, I freeze basil, and that's what I use in the winter time.

Sometimes, though, I want fresh herbs so I buy them at the grocery store and keep them in the refrigerator in a "vase". A pint canning jars works well for me, put some water in it and plop the stems of the herbs in the water, they'll keep for a few days, at least. I've also had some that did OK with the stems just wrapped in wet paper towel then foil to keep it contained but the jar of water is the most convenient for me.

Annie

We have four-foot lights with T-5 bulbs for starting vegies in the spring. This time of year I have plastic window boxes under one in our front porch/greenhouse, planted with greens and herbs . We keep the light on for a couple of hours in the morning and evening. There's some heat...50-60F. Kale, Asian greens, basil and spinach are happy. Hoping the little rosemary plant I rescued from the frost will like it, too.

No, you do'nt have to let them dry. The fresher the better. With some fresh herbs that can be expensive, I chop them and freeze them - it can be better than dried to use over the winter. I use a lot of parsley so I wash, chop and freeze big bags of herbs like that. Chives freeze well to.

I have a rosemary and a few other herbs sitting in my window in shock from the transition of outside to inside. I made and froze pesto and other fresh herb pastes last summer. I also froze sage and parsley ground up with olive oil in an ice cube tray. Next year I want to do more varieties of single herbs.

If I bring plants inside after they have gone dormant they won't grow until they have 'winter'. Sometimes they can be tricked. Growlights may help in some cases.

Unless your herbs get at least 5-6 hours of sunlight or artificial grow lights, they really won't be able to thrive in your garage. As others have shared, choose a nice sunny south window or a grow light. Parsley seems to get "leggy" (more stem than parsley) once you bring it inside, so keep it clipped.

I consider herbs an important source of fresh food and a great nutritional addition to our diet, along with wheatgrass (grown at home and juiced), sprouts (my little garden-in-a-jar) and micro-greens. When "fresh" food is no longer available from our garden, and the produce from the store just arrived from Chili and the cucumbers are from a hot house in Canada void of any real nutritional value, I make my own fresh food. I've also grown pots of tomatoes and leaf lettuce indoors.

Other indoor options for gardening include an AeroGarden (check Amazon.com for them for a good price) or a Window Farm (link below). I use both of these.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Window Farms

At present I have two 5" pots of basil up on glass canisters to get more light by my kitchen sink windows which face North. They have been there since September (or maybe late August?) when I found them on sale at the grocery store for 2 for $5. I cut a sprig just last night to add to a pasta dish.

I don't know how these plants manage to grow in what I consider low light. But I found out this arrangement works for me when I bought a single 3" pot of basil in May a few years ago and kept it growing and going for almost a year before it bit the dust.

I keep it evenly moist with a little water about every other day, since the house is drier in winter. And I turn the pots around every few days so the plants don't lean too much toward the light.

For little money, you could try a pot of basil or parsley in a bright window just to see how it would do?

Teresa

One thing that works for me when buying fresh herbs --- when I get home from the store;

I immediately trim the stems, rinse the bunch in cool water, put the bunch standing up in a container with water with a few inches of water, cover the bunch loosely with a thin plastic bag (usually the bag that they came home from the grocery store in), and place in the frig.

Parsley and cilantro will last at least 5 days, a little longer if I remember to change the water every day or two.

ML

Thanks everybody for the wonderful response. I have lights out in the garage which are on 24 hours/day. I brought in one basil which I had started outside by just pinning it down and it rooted. The ones which I tried to start in water are not doing anything. The parsley might just be taking a breather, but I am going to try and bring it in with the basil in my sewing-family room which is completely surrounded with windows and heated. I don't have any cilantro except what I buy at the grocery store. Should I try to freeze that in ice cube trays? Really appreciate your help. You have such good ideas. Barb

Parsley grows just fine as a perennial outdoors with little or no care. It can be harvested year around. Just brush away the snow if necessary. After a few years you will need to replant.

Jim

Parsley grows just fine as a perennial outdoors with little or no care. It can be harvested year around. Just brush away the snow if necessary. After a few years you will need to replant.

Jim

Jim,

Parsley is a bi-annual rather than perennial. It will grow lush its first year and, yes, it returns the second season but will just grow a bit in early spring before setting seed. Best to plant and treat as an annual.

/tricia

Hmm. That explains the need to replant. Now I know and will need to replant more often than I thought. :-)

It is a productive and trouble-free plant when sowed in open ground, however.

Thanks, Tricia.

Jim

I let some of my parsley go to seed and self-seed itself...that way, I don't have to buy new plants or go to the trouble of starting them indoors. Parsley is really slow when you start it indoors.

With cilantro, I buy a bunch at the market, rinse it and put it in a Ziploc, squeezing out as much of the air as possible and keep it in the freezer. When I need some for soups, salsa, etc, I just snip some of it off of the frozen bunch.

This is the first year that I've grown rosemary. It was in a pot outdoors all summer & I brought the pot in a couple of weeks ago. So far, so good. But I don't expect it to hang on all winter.

Cutting celery does awesome for me. I grow it in a pot outdoors over the summer & bring the pot in for the winter and keep in a sunny window. It does nicely without any supplemental light.

So far, I've only dried my basil. Haven't tried to bring it indoors.

If your plants in the garage are under gro-lights, 24 hours is actually too many. 16 hours would be sufficient. Good luck.

I always have questions. Jimster, where do you plant the parsley outdoors? I have an unheated greenhouse and a heated garage , thermostat set to 50.

Grainlady, what kind of tomatoes do you plant that will bear in the winter. I am in zone 5A, Indiana.

ci-lantro, what is "cutting celery" and where can I get?

pink warm mama, the lights are not gro-lights just plain four foot flourescents. Don't want to put the money in gro-lights and feel it would be inappropiate for me to take a chance. Just an experimental thing. I hate those anemic looking tomatoes that you get in the grocery.

Thanks exerybody. Barb

Barb-

I'm in central Kansas and I've grown Red Robin tomatoes (a dwarf cherry tomato variety) indoors in pots in a sunny window - be sure to start them in the late summer, early fall - 55-days to maturity. I got the seeds from ContainerSeeds.com, and you can also get seeds through Amazon.com. This is a variety that works well under grow lights and in small 8-10-inch pots or hanging pots.

If you use an AeroGarden, they have several varieties you can grow indoors: Heirloom Cherry Tomato, Mighty Mini cherry Tomato and Golden Harvest (yellow) Cherry Tomato.

I grown celery indoors from the root end of a bunch of celery from the store, and you'll find the instructions at the link below.

You can make grow lights with red and blue LED Christmas lights. I use "Miracle LED" red / blue grow lights with my Window Farm (a 2w bulb equivalent to a 50w bulb - 30,000 hr. life and NO mercury), and a small 13W Plant Task Lamp (florescent lamp) for growing wheatgrass and micro-greens in 5-inch pots.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Never Buy Celery Again

Barb, if you get one "warm" and one "cool" florescent bulb, that helps the plants too (according to my Ag agent) and it's easy and cheaper than grow lights.

I've found that some herbs (I live in Northern/Western Michigan, zone 5a) do really well right into the cold weather. I have a pot of oregano outdoors (because it spreads so much it's invasive in my herb bed), which I pulled under the eaves and then forgot about. We've had snow a couple of times and it's been in the 20s at night for a couple of weeks now. I think I'm going to bring it into my garage and just set it by a window and see what it does over the winter.

I cut some tonight for my gratin and this is what it looked like.

So, I'll be experimenting along with you. I have picked fresh sage right out of the snow for stuffing at Christmas, so it's really cold tolerant. I've been unable to overwinter rosemary, although it lasts late into the season. I mulch well and it's in a protected corner, but it still dies.

Annie

Barb--Cutting celery is a leaf celery--looks very much like parsley. I don't remember where I got the seeds but Johnny's Selected Seeds has two varieties available by mail order.

I'm another one interested in cutting celery. Also got inspired by Grainlady's indoor celery post.

Soak a paper towel in water. Wrap around your fresh herb . Put in a Ziploc bag and into the crisper in your refrigerator.

Lasts for about a week for me.

Maybe you should do your own research to know which method keeps herbs longer in your home?

~ buy three packs of the same herb at the grocery, rinse one pack, dry it well, wrap in a damp paper towel, put in a zip lock bag, seal and store in the fridge; take another pack, rinse well, dry, put in a tall glass filled with water, store in the fridge; take the third pack, stick in a glass of water and set it up on a window ledge to get light

~ but two small pots of the same herb, set one in a window inside with bright light (or set on something tall to get the plant higher up near the window light); take the other pot, put outside in your garage with the lights - note: the lights need to be down close to the plant to have any growth effect.

With one large bunch of parsley, you could do the first trials, separating out stems of the parsley for each trial group. I would try to get pots of basil for the second group trials. Fresh cilantro is too fragile and persnicketty IMO for use in these tests.

Teresa