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Why a pot of herbs is the gentlest place to start

There is a particular pleasure in stepping into the kitchen on a grey Tuesday morning, snipping four leaves of basil over a tomato sandwich, and feeling that you have done something quietly useful. Growing herbs in pots is slow living at its most practical. It asks perhaps ten minutes of attention a week and gives back scent on your fingers, something green to look at while the kettle boils, and a daily reminder that living things keep their own time.

You do not need a garden, a greenhouse, or any particular skill. A sunny windowsill, three pots, and a willingness to water thoughtfully are enough to keep you in herbs for most of the year, even in a flat in Leeds or a rented room in Bristol.

Start with three herbs that forgive you

Basil, mint, and rosemary are the friendliest trio for a British home. Between them they cover most of what you will actually cook, and each teaches you something different about how plants behave.

• Basil is tender, thirsty and fast-growing. It loves warmth and hates cold draughts, so keep it away from a window that catches the wind. It will not survive a frost, and in winter it sulks on a cool sill.
• Mint is almost impossible to kill, which makes it forgiving and slightly alarming. It spreads by underground runners, so give it a pot of its own unless you want it taking over everything else.
• Rosemary is a woody Mediterranean shrub that dislikes wet roots above all else. Given sharp drainage and a breezy spot, it will live for years and grow into something that looks rather handsome on a kitchen sill.

Pots, compost and drainage

Most herb problems begin below the soil, so it is worth getting the basics right. Choose pots around 15 to 20 centimetres across for a single plant, with at least one proper drainage hole. Terracotta is lovely because it breathes and dries out faster, which suits rosemary, but any pot with holes will do. Glazed pots hold moisture longer, so use them for mint and basil.

Fill with a peat-free multi-purpose compost, and for rosemary and other woody herbs mix in a couple of handfuls of horticultural grit to improve drainage. Do not overpot: a small plant in a large pot of wet compost is the quickest route to root rot. A few broken pieces of pot or a handful of grit at the base helps, though the drainage hole matters more than the layer of stones.

Watering: the one skill worth learning

If you learn one thing, learn this. Push a finger two centimetres into the compost before you water. If it feels damp, walk away. If it feels dry just below the surface, water slowly at the base until a little runs out of the drainage hole, then empty the saucer so the roots are not sitting in water.

Each herb wants something slightly different:

• Basil drinks freely in warm weather and will wilt dramatically if left dry, reviving within an hour of a good soak. Water little and often.
• Mint likes compost that stays reliably moist but never sodden. It is the thirstiest of the three.
• Rosemary wants to dry out almost completely between waterings. In winter, once a fortnight is often plenty.

Morning is the best time to water, and letting tap water stand for an hour takes the chill off it. In summer, check daily; in January, barely at all.

Light, position and the British windowsill

Herbs need light, and our grey winters make that the real limiting factor. A south-facing sill is ideal, with east next best. A north-facing window will keep mint alive but leave basil leggy and pale. Turn your pots a quarter turn every few days so they grow evenly rather than leaning towards the glass.

Watch the heat, too. A sill directly above a radiator is a harsh place: warm, dry air above and cold glass behind. Move pots a little further into the room in winter, and bring tender basil inside well before the first frost in October. A windowsill that drops below about 10°C at night will finish basil off, however carefully you water it.

Harvest little and often, and they will thank you

Herbs are not houseplants to be admired from a distance; they are crops. Regular picking is what keeps them bushy rather than tall and spindly, so use them. The rule of thumb is never to take more than a third of the plant at once, and to cut just above a pair of leaves so new shoots break from that point.

• Basil: pinch out the top pair of leaves on each stem, and remove any flower buds as soon as they appear. Flowering tells the plant its job is done, and the leaves turn bitter.
• Mint: cut whole stems from the outside of the clump, right down to a leaf node near the base. It will rebound within a fortnight.
• Rosemary: snip the soft green tips for cooking, and avoid cutting into the old woody stems, which rarely regrow.

If leaves yellow and drop, you are almost certainly overwatering. If growth is pale and stretched, it wants more light. Small black flies around the compost usually mean it is staying too wet; let the surface dry out and water from below for a week or two.

Beyond the practicalities, there is something quietly grounding about tending three pots on a sill. You notice the light shifting through the year, the new growth after a pinching, the first sniff of rosemary on a cold afternoon. Ten minutes, once a week, and a windowsill that earns its keep.