Can You Really Grow a Winter Garden in the Kitchen?

Now that winter weather is fully upon us, it is easy to fall into the grocery store trap, forgoing fresh ingredients for your culinary adventures. Don’t fall for it. While life in the Catskills can be challenging in the winter, you can can produce a wide variety of herbs that will liven any meal and provide added beauty and a breath of fresh air to your home.

Tammi Hartung at birdsandblooms.com offers a step-by-step guide to establishing a year-round indoor garden that can supply the freshest of ingredients from a tiny space. She advises you to look around your house and choose your best location - and don’t limit yourself to the kitchen.

Basil, chives, mints and parsley are just a few that do very nicely in pots with bright indirect light. It might surprise you to know you don’t need direct sunlight for growing most herbs; the indirect light most of us get will work fine.

East-, south- and west-facing windows should all give your herbs enough light, especially if you set up a small table or use a counter that keeps plants about a foot away from window glass.

Tricia Drevets at offthegridnews.com says start with a few basics, such as oregano, thyme, parsley, basil and rosemary. Then add a few others that your family particularly enjoys in their favorite meals. Cilantro? Dill? Chives?

She advises to check your garden center for high-quality seeds or for healthy and vigorous-looking starter plants. Or maybe find a selection of starter plants in your grocery store’s produce section as well.

Drevets says if your herb garden is in your kitchen, the plants should get some additional humidity from your use of the sink or dishwasher. If not, lightly mist them with a water spray bottle.

For resources in and around the Great Western Catkills you can see any of these local options, or even your local grocery store. If you know of a great resource we don’t have listed, please fee free to let us know.

Tractor Supply Co.
Delhi, NY
(607) 746-9222

Greenane Garden Center
Meridale, NY
(607) 746-7033

Green Thumb Garden Center
Hamden, NY
(607) 746-2248

Stamford Farmers Cooperative
Stamford, NY
(607) 652-7225

Sweet Meadows Country Home & Garden
Davenport, NY
(607) 278-4005

Quarltere's Nursery Inc
48850 State Highway 30
Roxbury, NY
(607) 326-4282

Diversified AG
36588 State Highway 23
Grand Gorge, NY
(607) 588-7202

Garden Center at The Home Depot
Oneonta, NY
(607) 432-1089

Lowe's Garden Center
Oneonta, NY
(607) 433-4000