With sunlight and a little space, you can grow herbs indoors.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Fresh herbs add great flavor to your dishes and let you season food without adding too much salt—a much healthier alternative. You can also use them to brew tasty, great-for-you teas. So it makes good sense to start your own herb garden. Plus, it’s fun, and you’ll have a continuous herb supply that costs next to nothing.

As with flowers and vegetables, spring is prime planting time for herbs. Herbs are easy enough to grow in an outdoor garden or in containers on a patio. But if you don't have the space outdoors, growing herbs indoors is easy; all it takes is a sunny windowsill and some small pots.

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The key word is sunny. "Most culinary herbs need full sun," says Jeff Cox, a chef and garden designer and author of The Cook's Herb Garden. "Unless you have a south-facing window, it'll be hard to get enough sunlight. If your place doesn’t get enough sunlight, and you don’t have access to more a deck or fire escape, keep your herbs about 12 inches away from a 40-watt light bulb. (Any closer may wilt them.)

Some things to consider for your indoor herb garden:

Pick the Right Herbs
Not all herbs do well indoors, whether because they need a lot of sun or the kind of rich soil you can only get in a garden. It’s also important to pick hardy, drought-tolerant plants. Chives, regular thyme (thymus officinalis), oregano, and rosemary all do well on a sunny windowsill, says Cox. "Oregano and thyme are both herbs of Italy and Greece—so they like warm climates,” he says. “They can take a little drought if you forget to water them.” Likewise, chives and rosemary can live inside and are tolerant if you forget to water them now and then. "You can just about hit rosemary with a sledgehammer and not kill it,” says Cox. "It's a real tough plant."