Cooking with fresh herbs can delight your taste buds and spark your culinary imagination, but store-bought varieties can be expensive and they go bad quickly. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to add more flavor to your dishes, consider an at-home herb garden. If the idea of growing plants from seedlings has you intimidated, the Nature’s Blossom Herb Garden Kit is just what you need. The kit includes just the essentials—AKA no fancy extras that complicate the process. Read on for everything you need to know about growing herbs with this kit—and find out if it’s worth it.
Setup Process: Just add water
Starting your herb garden is as easy as adding water to the included compacted soil disks. The instructions recommend expanding each peat soil disk individually using hot water (approximately 122 degrees). We found that it was simpler to apply the same process to all of the disks together in a large bowl and then distribute the soil among the five pots, however. It is important to follow the instructions closely when preparing the seeds themselves. The kit comes with five packets of organic, non-GMO seeds: basil, cilantro, sage, parsley, and thyme. Some, such as basil, are ready to be sown straight out of the packet. Others, such as sage, require soaking for up to 24 hours before planting. Fortunately, all seed preparation instructions are included so even a novice gardener will have optimal chances for success.
Ease of Use: Basic gardening
While we had grown and tended herb gardens before, we had never attempted to grow herbs from seeds prior to testing the Nature’s Blossom Herb Garden Kit. Preparing the seeds correctly was very important to ensure that they would germinate. It was also helpful to only sow the recommended 10 to 15 seeds per pot. After sowing the seeds, all that was needed was to water them when the soil appeared dry. We started by keeping the pots outdoors, but we quickly realized that it was too hot and sunny for the tender seedlings. After moving them indoors, we gave them just a little bit of water each day. We eventually cut back due to some mold growth, which can be a sign of overwatering. We had some experience with growing kitchen herbs and recognized this, but a novice gardener may not realize how to deal with mold. In general, we found the whole process to be pretty straightforward, though. In fact, it can be a bonding activity for the entire family, as even young children will enjoy checking on the progress of their seeds and watering them each day. Once the seedlings are strong enough, Nature’s Blossom recommends moving them to other pots or even transplanting the biodegradable pots directly into the ground. We found that these pots were ready to be replaced as soon as the seedlings were ready to be transplanted so you definitely can’t reuse them for other seeds. We already had a thriving outdoor garden that was ready for these new plants, but if you do not, you should be ready to purchase planters of some kind.
Included Tools and Accessories: Just the basics
The Nature’s Blossom Herb Garden Kit includes exactly what you need to get started growing kitchen herbs: soil disks that expand, seeds of five popular herbs, labels to remember what you planted in each pot, and biodegradable pots where the seeds can start growing. None of these elements are particularly decorative, but they do the job. If all you need is the basics to grow seedlings, this kit will suffice. The kit doesn’t include decorative pots for growing your herbs inside for an extended period of time. If you are looking for something that will look particularly nice on your windowsill, you will need to purchase additional pots or display pieces to use once your seedlings are growing.
Results: Grew mold and some herbs
Nature’s Blossom recommends keeping the pots in a well-ventilated area to encourage the seedlings to grow as well as inhibit any unwanted growth, such as mold or fungus. We kept them on an open kitchen counter, near filtered sunlight and with plenty of air, but still found some mold growth on the outside of the pots after a couple of weeks. While we were able to grow some herbs, the pots with the most mold had the least amount of seedling growth.
Price: Best for your budget
The Nature’s Blossom Herb Garden Kit is a great option if you want to try growing herbs without spending a lot of money. You can usually find this kit for around $22. When you consider how quickly you can rack up a $22 bill on herbs at the grocery store, this kit is well worth the money. If all of your seedlings do well and produce usable herbs, you’ll quickly recoup the cost of the kit. Nature’s Blossom also offers a “grow guarantee,” so you can get a refund or replacement if your seeds don’t produce anything.
Competition: Best budget kit around
Interested in reading more reviews? Check out our roundup of the best herb garden kits. If you’re just looking for the basics, the Nature’s Blossom Herb Garden Kit will do the job, but keep in mind that you’ll need to purchase permanent pots once your seedlings have sprouted. If you’d rather purchase one kit that you can use long-term, this probably isn’t the best choice.
