Yes, growing your own herbs is cheaper than buying cut packs — but the saving is smaller and slower than the internet promises. A supermarket herb pack costs CHF 2.50–3.20 and wilts within days. A living plant costs CHF 3.50–4.50, and with a sunny windowsill and a splash of water it keeps cutting for months. Grow the herbs you actually reach for often, and a balcony pays itself back within weeks.
A household that buys one basil or parsley pack a week spends around CHF 145 a year on cut herbs. Replace the four or five you use most with pots and a couple of seed packets for a one-off CHF 25–35, and you claw back roughly CHF 60–120 over a single Swiss summer — with rosemary, thyme, chives and mint returning at no cost the year after.
Is growing herbs actually cheaper than buying them
The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how much you use. If you buy a fresh herb pack once or twice a month and use half of it before the rest turns to slime in the fridge drawer, the maths barely moves — you are spending CHF 30–40 a year and a plant saves you pocket change. The saving only becomes real when a herb is part of your weekly cooking.
Cut herbs are one of the most waste-prone items in a Swiss trolley. The pack is sized for a restaurant, not a two-person flat, so the back half rots. Growing your own flips that: you snip exactly what a recipe needs and leave the rest alive on the plant. It is the same root-to-stem, use-what-you-buy logic behind zero-waste vegetable cooking — less thrown away is the biggest saving of all.
Rule of thumb: a herb earns its pot if you use it at least twice a week. Below that, buy cut packs on Aktion and freeze the surplus in oil. Above it, a plant or a row of seeds wins within a month.
Cut pack, potted plant or seeds: the three ways to buy a herb
Every herb on a Swiss shelf comes in three formats, and the price gap between them is wide. A cut pack is the most expensive per gram and the shortest-lived. A potted plant costs a little more up front but keeps producing. Seeds are cheapest by far per plant, but they ask for patience and a few weeks of growing before the first harvest.
| Herb | Cut pack (supermarket) | Potted plant | Seed packet | Best value over a season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basil | ~CHF 2.80 / 30 g | ~CHF 4.20 | ~CHF 2.50 (100+ seeds) | Plant now; sow seeds too if you cook with it weekly |
| Parsley | ~CHF 2.60 / bunch | ~CHF 3.90 | ~CHF 2.20 | Seeds — slow to start, then months of leaves |
| Chives | ~CHF 2.80 | ~CHF 3.80 | ~CHF 2.40 | Plant — perennial, regrows after every cut |
| Mint | ~CHF 2.90 | ~CHF 3.90 | ~CHF 2.60 | Plant — spreads fast, near-free thereafter |
| Rosemary | ~CHF 3.20 | ~CHF 4.50 | ~CHF 2.90 | Plant — woody, lasts years on a balcony |
| Thyme | ~CHF 3.00 | ~CHF 4.20 | ~CHF 2.70 | Plant — perennial, shrugs off dry spells |
| Coriander | ~CHF 2.80 | ~CHF 3.90 | ~CHF 2.30 | Seeds — bolts in heat, so re-sow often |
Read the table by column and the pattern is clear: the potted plant is barely a franc more than a single cut pack, yet it replaces ten of them. Seeds turn CHF 2–3 into dozens of plants — unbeatable value if you have the weeks to wait. Grow your own and you also sidestep the packaging and the organic premium entirely; there is no need to weigh up whether Bio is worth it when the pot on your windowsill never saw a plastic sleeve.
Which herbs pay off on a Swiss balcony — and which fight you
Not every herb is worth the pot. The ones that pay off are the perennials and the vigorous spreaders, because you buy them once and harvest for years. The ones that fight you are the fussy annuals that bolt, sulk or need more sun than a north-facing Zurich balcony can give.
- Best returns: chives, mint, thyme, rosemary, oregano and sage. Perennial or near-indestructible, they survive a missed watering and come back each spring. Buy one plant, never buy that herb again.
- Worth it if you cook with them: basil and parsley. Both are heavy feeders that need sun and steady water, but if they feature in your weekly meals they easily out-earn their pot.
- Handle with care: coriander and dill bolt to seed the moment a heatwave hits. Sow a short row every three weeks rather than one big pot, or you will get a fortnight of leaves and then a flower stalk.
South- or west-facing balconies grow almost anything. If yours is shadier, lean on mint, chives and parsley, which all tolerate part shade. Pair a few living pots with a well-stocked cheap spice rack of dried herbs and you cover nearly every recipe without ever paying cut-pack prices.
What a balcony herb garden really costs to start
The barrier is lower than most people assume. You do not need raised beds, grow lights or a garden-centre haul. A workable starter kit for a Swiss balcony looks like this:
- Two or three potted plants (a perennial like thyme, a mint, a basil): CHF 10–13
- Two seed packets (parsley, chives): CHF 4–5
- One bag of potting soil: about CHF 6
- Pots or a balcony box: CHF 0–15, and often free from things you already own — a cracked mug, a cut-down Tetra pack, an old salad bowl with a hole drilled for drainage
That is CHF 20–35 all in, most of it one-off. Set against the roughly CHF 636 a month the average Swiss household spends on food and non-alcoholic drinks, according to the Federal Statistical Office household budget survey, it is a rounding error that quietly trims the grocery bill every week.
How to make a CHF 4 supermarket herb pot last
Most people kill a supermarket basil plant within a week and conclude they have no green thumb. The plant was set up to fail: it was force-grown in a tiny pot packed with far too many seedlings all competing for the same thimble of soil. Rescue it and it becomes the cheapest plant on the balcony.
- Split it the day you buy it. Tip the plant out and gently pull the rootball into two or three clumps. Each clump becomes its own plant with room to breathe.
- Repot into bigger pots with fresh potting soil, so the roots finally have space and food.
- Water from below. Stand the pot in a saucer of water for ten minutes and let it drink up. Overhead watering rots the stems; the thirsty roots are what you are feeding.
- Give it the sunniest spot you have — a windowsill or balcony rail that catches the afternoon light.
- Harvest from the top, pinching just above a pair of leaves. That makes the plant branch out and grow bushier instead of tall and leggy.
Done once, this routine turns a CHF 4 pot into weeks of extra herb — and often a plant that survives long enough to make the whole buy-versus-grow question moot.
How much a summer of home-grown herbs really saves
Put numbers on a realistic household. Say you regularly cook with basil, parsley, chives and rosemary, buying a cut pack of one or another most weeks:
- Cut herbs, bought weekly: ~CHF 2.80 × 45 weeks ≈ CHF 125–145 a year
- Home-grown replacement: ~CHF 25–35 one-off for plants, seeds and soil
- First-year net saving: roughly CHF 60–110, once you allow for a plant or two that does not make it
- Following years: the perennials cost nothing, pushing the saving past CHF 120
It will not transform your budget — herbs are a small line item. But it is close to found money for ten minutes of weekend effort, it removes one of the most waste-prone packs from your trolley, and it tastes better. Stack it with seasonal buying and store choice and the small wins add up: a family of four that plans, shops the discounters and wastes less routinely trims CHF 200–350 a month off the grocery bill.
Frequently asked questions
Is growing herbs cheaper than buying?
Usually, yes — if you grow the herbs you use often. A supermarket cut-herb pack costs CHF 2.50–3.20 and lasts a few days; a living plant costs CHF 3.50–4.50 and supplies the same herb for months. The saving is modest, roughly CHF 60–120 over a Swiss summer, and it grows in later years as perennials like rosemary and thyme come back for free.
Which herbs are easiest on a balcony?
Chives, mint, thyme, rosemary and oregano are the most forgiving — they tolerate irregular watering and come back year after year. Basil and parsley need more sun and water but reward heavy users. Coriander bolts fast in the heat, so sow it in small batches every few weeks.
How much does a herb garden cost to start?
A starter balcony setup runs about CHF 25–35: two or three potted plants at CHF 3.50–4.50, a couple of seed packets at CHF 2–3, a bag of soil around CHF 6, and pots you probably already own. No special equipment is needed — a sunny windowsill and a watering can are enough.
How do I keep supermarket herbs alive?
Supermarket pots are grown fast and overcrowded, so split the rootball into two or three clumps, repot them into bigger pots with fresh soil, water from below and give them the sunniest spot you have. Harvest from the top to keep the plant bushy. Most basil and parsley pots last weeks longer this way.
Does Eini track herb prices?
Yes. Eini's algorithm tracks fresh-herb and plant prices across Coop, Migros, Lidl, Aldi, Denner and Aligro, so when a cut pack or a potted herb goes on Aktion you see it — and the app folds it into your meal plan and grocery list automatically.
Plan smarter, spend less with Eini.
Real prices from Coop, Migros, Lidl, Aldi, Denner & Aligro. Smart meal plans. Automatic grocery lists.
Download