Indoor herb bed for school - advice please!

[Curlykale]

I've been asked to help a local school to set up a mini herb bed in the classroom.

I've failed miserably when trying to grow herbs indoors at home, so would be grateful for any advice you can offer.

For instance, which herbs would be easy for the children to grow, and what sort of container / compost would be the best to grow them in.

Thanks in advance!

[Kleftiwallah]

The herbs will need some form of auxiliary lighting. This in itself will be an education for the sprogs.

Don't plant Rue, it stinks and can be troublesome. Cheers, Tony.

[VirginVegGrower]

I would grow in an old butler's sink - has a drainage hole, which will need a crock over it. Lots of grit in your compost as herbs don't like wet feet and I would google shade loving herbs as they aren't going to get a great deal of sunlight. Why inside?

[Two_Sheds]

Indoors? Not enough light, imo

[Curlykale]

It's a really bright, sunny room with big windows - I was thinking about using big pots - say one each for each herb, and trying parsley, rosemary, cress, chives, mint etc. Would that not work?

If not I suppose it would be better not to risk it, rather than try and fail and end up with a class full of disappointed children.

[veggiechicken]

You wouldn't want to grow mint or rosemary from seed - it would take too long. Why not take some mint cuttings and root them in water on the window sill - that's easy and quick. then you could pot them up and they'd be OK on a window sill for a while. Put them outside at the weekend and holidays to recover!

[kfan]

I used to grow chives indoors which worked well and grows easy from seed, but kept it in a cool bright area. Cress should definitely be ok as I grow that in my kitchen away from the window. I think parsley might have some problems if not kept on the windowsill. I would grwo lemon balm inside instead of mint as it does a lot better indoors in my experience. Rosemary would be more of a problem though I can imagine.

It also might be fun to have sprouting shoots such as mung beans/ alphalpha/ radish/ mustard etc as the children can see how the sprouting actually works and they won't have to wait as long for it. And what about pea shoots, not a herb but grow fast and I like the look of them.

Regarding the containers, as mentioned before it should be well draining but with the children it might be fund if they can paint/ decorate them so terracotta might be good or empty pots of some sorts. I grow mine in empty tins with holes in them, set on a little plate.

[Two_Sheds]

It's a really bright, sunny room with big windows

Have a read through this: Grow an Indoor Herb Garden - How To Grow an Indoor Herb Garden

[Curlykale]

Thanks to you all for taking the time and trouble to reply. You've given me some good ideas.