I have had decent luck with herbs in pots indoors. Mind you, I have an 8 foot patio door with lots of sun! My rosemary grows like crazy. The basil usually lasts til about Xmas time, enabling me to make little mozzarrella/tomato/basil tarts for Xmas appetizers. Parsley definitely gets thin, but it usually survives and comes back. I had all my herbs in a big 16" pot. Just last night I moved the rosemary to a smaller pot with a cone topiary thingy. I installed self watering adapters in both pots, and refilled the large pot with new mix. I repotted the parsley in there, and put in about 6 basil seedlings (3 are probably not going to make it, so it shouldn't be too much). This will live on the balcony for the summer, and come in again in the fall. By the way, I tried growing chives in that big pot, from seed, and they never took off. You're probably better off buying small plants at the nursery. Make sure that the herbs you group together all like the same soil conditions in terms of watering.

I agree, indoor potted herbs is all dependent on your windows for available sunlight. Extra growing lamps should work, I've never done that though. rosemary jane, for drying out problems, if you haven't done this try getting large 3 gal? (about 12"diameter 12" tall) terra cotta pots or bigger. Even for small plants, I found that these were big enough to kinda retain moisture. I guess the smaller pots just can dry out faster. The terra cotta seems to be better at keeping water in too probably cause they heat up on all sides more than the terracotta ones. Look for a sale cause it can get pricy. The long narrow terra cotta planters also work well. Also use sphagnum peat moss (the pretty looking stuff) as a mulch--though any mulch would probably work--to help keep the water in. I did this in atlanta and had a lot of success with potted patio gardening.

I have a room in my garage that hold 4 400W MH/HPS grow lights. In that room I grow my winter herbs, tomatoes, greens and other things. I also over-winter my rosemary off to the side. They are doing great, but it takes a lot of light. Also, remember things like Basil love the heat while Cilantro not so much. You have to balance light and heat, which can be hard in a small room. Windows don't work, they can get too cold and not enough light. If you must use CFL, do so in a bathroom or bedroom, away from windows. Try and keep them warm. If you look on craiglist in your area, you can usually find a used grow light (MH or HPS) cheap (under $100). Many times youngsters buy the expensive ones to grow marijuana and it doesn't work out, so they sell the lights. A nice by-product of grow lights is a lot of heat. My 10x10 unheated garage space stays 85 degrees by sealing in the heat from my three lights.

Thanks, Flora -- I really appreciate your thoughts here. Yeah, I just don't know what's going on. The leaves of the outdoors basil plant that I took these cuttings from were all were perfectly formed, not puckered or gnarled. It's only the plants grown from the stem cuttings that have leaves that way. And many of the leaves on these indoor plants are fine, but a good number of them look eaten and gnarled. The puzzling thing is that there are NO insect eggs to be seen on the underside of these eaten-up-looking leaves, either the arugula or basil. Every time I see one of these leaves I check it, but there's nothing to be seen. Here's a photo of one of the eaten-up-looking basil leaves. It certainly does look like insect damage but I just don't see any evidence of insects on the leaf. I know nothing about this, but I imagine it is possible that slugs or snails could have somehow made it into my house and up the stairs to the second floor, but...? I'll check under the pots tonight. Thanks for the info that basil, thyme and oregano grow in the wild in alkaline soils. I hadn't been aware of that. So your guess is that pH 9.1 water should not pose a problem for growing the domesticated versions of these plants? I'm as puzzled as ever, and learning a lot through the adventure.