GROWING HERBS IN YOUR KITCHEN.  For most of us who love herbs, the ideal is a large, rambling kitchen garden with an extensive herb plot--something like an Elizabethan Knot Garden where you can wander through winding paths heady with the fragrance of herbs and the drone of bees.

The reality is often quite different.  Even if we have the room, there may not be the time to spare to care for an elaborate herb plot, and how can we expect to grow our own herbs in an apartment?

Fortunately, herbs are the most forgiving of plants--many species will literally grow anywhere, so if you have a sunny window sill, a small balcony, or even a bathroom that has daily sunshine, you can grow herbs.

In fact, you can start with just three pots of herbs in your kitchen or on your balcony.

The first thing to decide is which herbs you want to grow, and this should be dictated by your needs--for example, if you love Italian food and cook a lot of pasta dishes, then you will want to grow your own basil, rosemary and oregano, all herbs that feature in Italian cooking.  If your taste runs to Asian food, you will prefer to have lemongrass, coriander and Vietnamese mint.

If you love comfort food, such as stews, roasts and casseroles, you will want to grow the right herbs to use in stuffings and stews--parsley, sage and thyme.

If you want to grow herbs for cosmetic or medicinal use, you'll want good all rounders like lavender, calendula (marigolds) and chamomile.  All of these have therapeutic uses--lavender is invaluable for cosmetics and cleaning products, calendula makes a valuable first aid cream, and chamomile can be dried and used for tea to promote relaxation and calm upset stomachs.

Some herbs will grow into large plants, like lavender and rosemary, but you can move them to a larger pot, strike new plants from them and give them away, or hand them on to someone with a garden when they grow too large and start again with a small plant.

An herb garden kit is another great way to get started with herbs in a small space.  These kits come with everything you need, and a good variety of herbs, to get you started.

The most important thing to remember with indoor or small space herbs is not to overwater--many common culinary herbs flourish in dry, sunny areas like the Mediterranean.

In a kitchen setting, it is important to place your herbs where they will avoid being irritated by steam and fat splashes from cooking.  The traditional sunny window sill is the ideal spot, of course, but you can also use a houseplant rack or specially built shelf to hold your herbs in a congenial spot--like near the door.

You will soon wonder how you ever managed without handy herbs to liven up your cooking!