A kitchen herb garden is a different proposition to a houseplant. Houseplants you admire. Herbs you cut from. Twice a week, sometimes more, and what you’re left with on a Wednesday evening has to keep performing through Sunday lunch. Whatever setup you choose has to cope with that — being constantly pruned, occasionally forgotten, and, if you’re honest about it, not always given the light it deserves.
This issue is about five ways to grow herbs in your kitchen, and the trade-offs of each. None of them are wrong. They suit different herbs, different windowsills, and different relationships with maintenance.
The Five Methods at a Glance
| Method | Cost | Effort | Best for | Avoid for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terracotta + soil | £3–8 | Low | Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, bay | Nothing — it’s the safe answer |
| Soil in a cut bottle | Free* | High | Mint, chives, parsley | Mediterranean woody herbs |
| Semi-hydro / LECA | £20–25 | Low | Basil, mint, lemon balm, chives | Mediterranean woody herbs |
| Kratky hydroponic | £25–30 | Very low | Basil (and lettuce) | Mediterranean woody herbs |
| Mason jar wicking | £2 | Very low | Almost anything (within reason) | Long-lived woody herbs |
* Once you own a £20 bottle cutter.
The Herbs Themselves
Before the vessels, the plants. Herbs split cleanly into three groups by how you start them, and getting this right will save you the slow disappointment of a windowsill of stalled seedlings.
Easy from seed, and worth doing because seed packets cost less than a single supermarket pot:
- Basil, coriander, parsley, chives, dill, rocket
- All cheap, all reliable, all happy on a windowsill within four to eight weeks of sowing
Better rescued from a supermarket pot:
- Basil, mint, parsley
- The pots from Sainsbury’s contain forty-odd seedlings crammed into one plug, all competing
- Split into smaller groups of five or six and re-pot — you’ll get something that lasts months instead of fortnights
Better bought as a small plant:
- Rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, bay, lemon balm
- The woody Mediterraneans are slow and frustrating from seed
- A £3 pot from a garden centre saves you a season of waiting
A note on myrtle, since it’s on the masthead: culinary myrtle (Myrtus communis) is genuinely usable — the leaves work like bay, the berries like a softer juniper. Slow from seed, easier from cutting, and it prefers a terracotta pot to anything else on this list.
Method One: Terracotta and Soil
Cost £3–8 · Effort Low · The safe answer
The unglamorous answer, and still the right one for a lot of herbs.
Terracotta breathes. The clay wicks moisture out of the soil, which is exactly what Mediterranean herbs evolved to want — they hate sitting in wet feet, and a terracotta pot makes that almost impossible. Pair it with a free-draining mix (one part grit or perlite to two parts compost) and you have something rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and bay will live in for years.
- Long-lived
- Cheap (£3–8 per pot)
- Forgiving of inconsistent watering
- The right home for woody Mediterranean herbs that none of the glass methods will keep alive
- Develops a beautiful patina over time
- Aesthetically obvious — looks like a garden centre, not a styled kitchen
- Drips, so needs a saucer
- Heavier than glass, awkward on narrow sills
Method Two: Soil in a Cut Wine Bottle
Cost free (with cutter) · Effort High · Beautiful but unforgiving
If you’ve read issue one, you know I cut wine bottles. They make excellent vessels for soft-stem herbs, with one critical caveat: there is no drainage. None at all. Which means the herb has to be one that tolerates damp roots, and the watering has to be disciplined.
Cut the bottle to about two-thirds height, sand the rim smooth, drop in two centimetres of horticultural grit at the base to give roots somewhere to escape standing water, then a free-draining compost on top. Water sparingly. The grit layer is doing all the work of a drainage hole, and it only works if you respect it.
- Beautiful — visually coherent with the propagation work
- Free vessel from your recycling
- Looks deliberate on a kitchen windowsill
- Cheap once you have the cutter
- Suits mint, chives, parsley, and basil-with-care
- No real drainage — root rot is the failure mode and it kills plants quickly
- Limited soil volume means more frequent feeding
- Rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano will all die in this setup
Method Three: Semi-Hydroponic in a Cut Bottle (LECA)
Cost £20–25 · Effort Low · The recommended middle path
Same vessel, different medium. LECA — lightweight expanded clay aggregate, those little terracotta-coloured balls — replaces soil entirely. The herb sits in clay pebbles with a centimetre or two of water in the bottom of the bottle. The pebbles wick moisture upward; the roots take what they need and stay aerated.
This is the method I’d point most people toward if they like the bottle aesthetic but don’t want to fight rot. It works particularly well for basil, mint, lemon balm and chives.
- Almost impossible to overwater
- Roots visible through the clay, which is genuinely lovely
- Low-maintenance — top up the reservoir once a week, flush every couple of months
- Reusable forever; the LECA never breaks down
- Initial outlay — a bag of LECA is about £10, a small bottle of hydroponic feed another £10–15
- Mediterranean woody herbs still hate it
- Brief learning curve around rinsing the LECA and checking pH
Method Four: Kratky Hydroponic in a Cut Wine Bottle
Cost £25–30 · Effort Very low · Most productive for basil
The most distinctive of the five, and the most productive for the right herb. Kratky is a passive hydroponic method: no pump, no electricity, no moving parts. The herb sits in a net cup at the neck of the bottle, roots dangling into a nutrient solution below. As the plant drinks, the water level drops, exposing the upper roots to air — which is exactly what they need to oxygenate. The lower roots stay submerged, taking up water and nutrients.
A cut wine bottle is, as it happens, almost perfectly proportioned for this. The neck takes a 2-inch net cup snugly. Dark glass (a burgundy or barolo bottle) does double duty by blocking light from the reservoir, which is essential — light on a nutrient solution grows algae within days.
The herb that does extraordinary things in Kratky is basil. Lettuce does too, if you want to extend the brief beyond herbs. Mint works. Coriander manages.
- Genuinely productive — basil in Kratky outpaces basil in soil by a noticeable margin
- No pump, no electricity, no recurring costs once set up
- Visually striking; roots fill the bottle over a few weeks
- Largely set-and-forget — three to four weeks between interventions
- Requires liquid nutrients (a Flora trio is around £25, but lasts a year+)
- Doesn't suit woody Mediterranean herbs
- One full grow cycle per setup — when the herb finishes, you flush and start again
- Reservoir must stay opaque to light — clear bottles need wrapping
Method Five: The Mason Jar Wicking Setup
Cost £2 · Effort Very low · The charity-shop tier
The charity-shop-friendly option. A jam jar or mason jar holds water in the base; an inner pot — a smaller jar, a yoghurt pot with holes drilled in the bottom, or a 3D-printed insert if you’re inclined — holds soil and the herb. A length of cotton rope or felt strip runs from the soil down into the water, wicking moisture upward as the plant needs it.
This is the most forgiving setup on the list, because the soil never dries out completely and never sits saturated. It self-regulates. A well-built wicking jar will go a week between top-ups.
- Truly charity-shop-tier costs — two jars and a length of cotton, under £2
- Soil-based, so any herb works (within reason)
- Self-watering, which suits forgetful kitchens
- Quirky in a way that earnest minimalist setups aren't
- Less visually elegant than the cut-bottle methods
- Wick can go mouldy or algal if light reaches the reservoir
- Smaller root volume than terracotta — longer-lived herbs will eventually outgrow it
Which Method for Which Herb
The short version:
| Herb | Pick this |
|---|---|
| Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, bay | Terracotta, no exceptions |
| Basil | Kratky for productivity, LECA for ease, soil-in-bottle if you’ll be attentive |
| Mint | Anything except Kratky long-term — it’ll fill whatever you give it |
| Chives, parsley | LECA, mason jar, or soil-in-bottle. All work |
| Coriander, dill | Terracotta or mason jar — they bolt fast and dislike being moved |
A Closing Thought
None of this matters if the windowsill doesn’t get light. Four to six hours of direct sun is the minimum for almost everything on this list, and a north-facing kitchen will defeat the most beautiful Kratky setup you can build. If you don’t have the light, accept it and buy a small grow lamp — £25 will solve the problem permanently, and your basil will thank you.
The vessel does not change what the herb needs. But it does change whether you’ll actually look at it on a Wednesday evening, notice it’s getting leggy, and pinch the tops back. That’s the whole game. The plant doesn’t care about the bottle. You do, and you should.
Myrtle's Bench is a recurring series — no affiliate incentives on specific products, no minimum price points. Just what actually works, at every budget. Browse all issues.
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