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Herbs on the windowsill that survive past week two

Supermarket pots die because of how they're grown, not because of you.

£ · 20 minutes · 3 min read

Basil, mint and parsley in terracotta pots on a sunny kitchen windowsill

A supermarket basil pot isn't one plant. It's twenty seedlings crammed into a pot the size of a mug, grown fast under lights to look full on a shelf, and they suffocate each other within a fortnight.

Split it and it becomes three plants that live for months.

The split

  1. Water the pot well an hour before, so the rootball holds together.
  2. Turn it out and gently pull it into three or four clumps. It looks brutal. They cope.
  3. Pot each clump into something wider than it is deep, in ordinary compost, with drainage.
  4. Water from the bottom — stand the pots in a tray of water for ten minutes, then take them out.
  5. Cut from the top down, always. Picking the bottom leaves is what makes a basil plant leggy and finished.

What lasts into autumn

  • Mint — nearly unkillable, but keep it in its own pot or it takes over
  • Parsley — slower, hardier, still going in November on a bright sill
  • Thyme and rosemary — outdoors in a pot by the door, fine through winter
  • Basil — the summer one. It goes over with the first cold night, so use it hard now

With kids

The splitting is a genuinely good job for small hands, and mint growing back after being cut is the fastest reward a five-year-old will get from a plant.

My SZN editorial inspiration — our own seasonal idea, not a listing for a verified external event.

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