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I bought a strawberry pot which sits on a plant stand with dill. chives, basil, thyme and sage. I pick and prune and freeze some. It reseeds itself, in the summer it goes on the back deck.

I brought my herb containers indoors for the winter. I'm growing basil, thyme, chives, rosemary, parsley. I was planning to bring some mint in, but never got around to it. It's also important to harvest regularly. They are at my mostly glass back door that faces south (in PA). Not sure they'd do so well in any other location - they get lots of natural light. I had a gorgeous bay for years, but alas, it died and I didn't replace it yet. I love the strawberry pots, but don't have any - it's a great way to grow them indoors and out. Good luck!

@barbara_flay- definintely go with containers in your area of the country. Move them inside well before the first frost and keep them there over the winter. After experimenting with several herb varieties, I now stick to the ones I really love/use. PerkyMac is right....harvest regularly. I stopped growing cilantro , as it would go to seed so quickly (plus, it is cheap and plentiful at the grocery store). I do have a few types of mint and that is another tough to kill plant ideal for small pots. I focus on herbs that I use often enough to rack up the $$ if I had to buy them at the grocery store...and the ones I enjoy the look/smell of on my balcony.

Good Luck!

The most common way potted plants get killed is overwatering, especially if they don't get a lot of sun. And it is hard to find enough sun in most houses in the winter. Sounds like Perky Mac has a good spot in her house.

Most herbs are very hardy, follow the advice above, make sure you have them in a sunny spot in the house. Someone mentioned an herb plant going to seed.. what you need to do in that situation, when you see a flowering head start to grow, is to pinch it off. When you allow an herb to flower, it means the end of the growing cycle... pinching the flowering head off allows it to continue to grow.

@Curtz ~ it sounds more like mold to me, but I have a fine mist spritzer I use. You can buy a plastic one at CVS for a dollar or less - they sell them with travel accessories.

@brooke29 ~ if you can afford it and have the space for it, an Aerogarden or 2 is the way to go. I'd love to have fresh grape or cherry tomatoes all year in one and herbs in another.

J.B. Hurley's 'The Good Herb' has a lot of helpful advice for growing herbs (e.g. the amount of moisture they require, how much sunlight they need); it is a cookbook, too, so you get recipes into the bargain (some of which are quite good). Local library (or B&N) probably has it.

Thanks, PerkyMac and dearrie! So misting it gives it enough moisture, huh? If that's a case, I may have to try again...

@dhorst ~ I know exactly what you mean. Those winters are really brutal. The snow there is mind boggling, although they do a much better job of keeping the roads clear and safe than NJ or PA. I used a snow blower on the driveway and had to shovel the cars! Forget trying to use a broom or brush. My mother also had a green thumb and didn't bother trying to grow herbs indoors when they lived there. She started her seeds on St. Patty's Day every year.

@dhorst ~ my dad always had one car he called the winter rat, and drove that to work. not because it was great on slippery roads or driving in snow, but because he didn't give a damn about rust and worse from the salt. he never bought a used car from there either. ;) I was never afraid to drive there, and I'm absolutely terrified here in PA after winter storms or thawing and black ice.

You know, maybe the Luck o' the Irish was what gave her such success in everything she tried, including gardening. Might help being Irish? ;)

That's funny, my mom's Mexican and Irish (great combo, huh?), she can't cook or grow a damn thing. Unless she wants to "root" something. In that case, she can make absolutely anything grow. She called me and told me she had broken a branch off of one the rose bushes I had just planted (I'm ever hopeful that the gardens will thrive), anyway, she told me that she stuck it in the dirt so it could root.
It did.
It bloomed.
I swear it's because she doesn't know any better.
Luck-o-the Irish?

Oh yeah. Never let your herbs flower unless you specifically want the seeds. It diverts the essential oils into flower and seed production and you lose flavor. Feed with a liquid seaweed fertilizer and prune/use regularly.
thyme, basil, mint are probably the easiest to grow indoors with plenty of sunlight or growlight. Rosemary is evergreen and can be grown close to the house in cold areas, and anywhere in a more temperate climate (Texas). I tend to leave parsley and cilantro for spring summer. It's a pain indoors and I love to garden.

Not dumb, simple inexperience. Harvest from the top down. Or from the end of a branch. It's the same as pruning which is basically what you're doing. Cut just above a set of leaves. This is actually good for your plant, it encourages more growth. If you look in a week or so, you'll notice 2 sets of leaves emerging at the base of the leaves you left.