You can either start your herbs from seed or purchase plant starts at a nursery, or even hardware and grocery stores in season. Starting seeds is very cost effective, and you have a much wider selection of varieties from which to choose, but it does take longer to get from a seed to an edible plant. If you want to enjoy your plants sooner, then look for plant starts instead.

Some herbs can grow in a sunny window with just the natural light that is available. Herbs like mint, rosemary and oregano work well in this type of light. However, if you wish to grow plants like basil or cilantro, then you will need to make sure that you give them extra artificial light, or they will not survive in the lower-light levels.

There are a couple of different options for lighting herbs with artificial light. Fluorescent grow lights can work well for this purpose, as can metal halide HID lamps. Other specific types include solarmax grow lamps, chrome dome grow lights and hortilux grow lights. Both fluorescent and HID types of light offer the blue color spectrum needed for early plant growth, and the red and orange spectrum, which plants need to flower properly. Both types of lights require electrical ballasts or digital ballasts to control the flow of the electrical current in the bulb, and they can be included inside the light fixture or they can be a separate component used in conjunction with the light bulb and light fixture.

Herbs can be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annuals complete their entire life cycle of germination, growth and reproduction in one year, whereas perennials will live for many years and repeat their life cycle. Biennials live for two seasons, where they grow in the first and bloom in the second. To help you decide which ones to grow, think about the types of foods you enjoy cooking, and what types of herbs you typically use to flavor them as a good way to start. Some herbs are fairly easy to grow, including annual basil, dill and summer savory. Parsley is a biennial, and also easy to grow. Beginners also usually have good luck growing perennial mint, thyme, winter savory, marjoram and chives indoors. The perennial herbs can survive for several years, and they like to go outside in the summer if possible.

Vegetable gardening provides a good example of how grow lights and grow lamps work. Vegetable gardeners who live in cold regions of the country know that in order to get a head start on the growing season they will want to start seeds indoors approximately six to eight weeks before their last average frost date. You can find out your last average frost date from your local county extension agent's office. Some seeds require light for germination, while others need it to be dark. This information will be given sometimes on the back of the seed packets, or you can research it in gardening reference books. Once the seeds germinate, the indoor lighting that is used will make or break your starts. Grow lamps need to be kept no more than two to four inches above the growing plant starts, so you will need a way to raise the lights as needed as the plant starts grow taller. Attaching the grow lights to chains, with a hook above, works easily and well for this purpose.

You will need to use different light spectrums depending on where you plants are in the growth stage. If it is early on in your new plant's life, then it will need light in the blue spectrum. When the plant is at the flowering stage, it will need light in the red and orange spectrums.

You can find a grow lamp for a specific color spectrum, or you can find lights that come in a full color spectrum, which is suitable for plants at any stage of development. In addition to the lamp, you will likely also want to use a reflector, which helps intensify and control the light that the lamp puts out, as well as electronic ballasts. The ballasts control the electrical current that flows to the lamp. A lamp ballast is used with high-intensity discharge lights, also known as HID lights, because they put out a very strong intense light similar to sunlight, and this makes them a very good choice for growing plants indoors. Fluorescent lights are also used in indoor gardening. They emit light in the blue and green, as well as the red spectrums, making them another great choice for growing plants indoors. Other popular lights include led grow lights, hortilux grow lights, solarmax grow lights and chrome dome grow lights.

The larger the plant is, the more light it will need to produce food and grow, so lighting is all important to the health and vitality of your indoor plants.