Herb garden kits make great gifts or can be used to start a delightful new hobby. Gardening is America's favorite past-time. It is relaxing, productive AND therapeutic. Indoor herb gardening is a growing trend, as more homeowners want to use fresh, as opposed to dry herbs, but aren't keen on the supermarket prices for fresh.

Included in the benefits of growing herbs are dressing up your home or yard with living plants, and eating your own fresh-picked, natural herbs.

Herb kits come in many varieties - kits for culinary herbs, tea herbs or medicinal herbs for example. They can be indoor or outdoor kits.

When purchasing an herb kit, you can start an herb garden right in your own kitchen. Placing the herbs in your windowsill gives your kitchen visual appeal, glorious scents and, on top of that, this is probably the best location for indoor herbs! Many kits come with a miniature container, or 'greenhouse' that provides the proper climate for fast herb growth and propagation. You can have herb plants in just a few weeks.

Herb seed kits are wonderful for all gardeners, whether experts or beginners. They can be found with seeds for one herb, two or three different herbs or many herbs.

The time of year to plant will be determined by which herbs you are planting.

When growing your seedlings indoors, make sure that they have adequate sunlight. If your indoor space doesn't get lots of sunlight, I would recommend grow lights that sit on the table or countertop. One manufacturer of these special grow lights is Hydrofarm.

If you can't find the herb kit or kits you are looking for locally, you can order them from several online companies that offer great varieties. You can find such wonderful sounding names for the kits as 'Culinary Herb Garden', 'Wintergreen in a Pail', 'French Country Herb Trio', 'Indian Spice Garden' and many more. Of course, if you do order online, you will normally need to cover the shipping costs.

I have a preference for the natural and organic kits. One such kit has the intriguing name of 'Organic Herb Garden Trio Tuscany Edition' and comes with three eco-friendly natural pots and saucers (made from rice hulls), compressed soil wafers, certified organic seeds, wood plant markers and instructions. It is gift-ready in a Tuscany style gable box made from recyclable materials and contains everything you need to start a mouthwatering herb garden.

According to the company's marketing materials, the rice hull pots are compostable and will last for up to three years with normal use.

Often, you can even choose which herbs you want included in your kit from a selection offered by the vendor. They may give you a dozen herbs to choose from for the purpose of making up your herb trio kit.

Herb garden kits normally will contain all or most of the following items, so that you are set to go as soon as you get your kit home. You can expect herb seeds, peat pellets, greenhouse tray (some made of recyclable plastic) and dome and instructions.

The pellets that are included are a convenient way to start seeds. All you do is add water and the pellets expand to form a pot and the soil all in one. The peat moss used for the pellets is a rich, quality growing medium. When your seedlings are ready, you can transplant them directly into larger containers or the ground. This will minimize any root damage or the shock associated with transplanting.