Do you mean permanently, for its entire life? I don't really know; I've never tried something like that. I think most would become root-bound pretty quickly, but if you picked something that you could divide, like mint, then it could potentially work as long as you divide it very frequently into new soil and clip off any rhizomes. I guess you could do that with most perennials, but they would stay pretty small and you might get over the constant maintenance pretty quickly.

Or you could grow a bonsai. I'm not sure what type of container you have, but I've seen people grow rosemary as a bonsai.

Most standard culinary herbs prefer outdoor conditions and while you can grow them in containers outside, bringing them indoors long term is problematic at best. Also, we get oodles of questions here about growing multiple herb plants/types in the same container. While it may look good in Better Homes & Gardens pictures, in practice it too is problematic at best as different plants need different care and growing conditions plus space. One to a pot and outside would be optimal for containers.

FataMorgana

The answer is "no!" While these little pots of plants look cute in an arrangement they must quickly be put in much larger pots, preferably out-of-doors.

Then i guess my next question is how do you tell when your plant needs a repotting? Just by looking at the roots or is there a way to guess-timate through the size of the plant itself?

So if i grew mint, an aggressively growing plant, would I have to repot/divide the mint within one growing season? or do you think it would take two if I was growing inside, next to a window?

Yeah, looking at the roots is the easiest way to tell. New growth will be stunted, with smaller leaves than normal (although maybe not if you're fertilising it). If the pot is flexible, then it gets harder to squeeze it because the roots are constantly expanding. And if you've got it sitting in a dish of some description, the roots will start hanging out of the holes at the bottom. That's when I know that a small pot of mint needs dividing.

I don't know how fast it would grow inside, but outside, it'd get root-bound in a 4-inch container pretty quickly. Several times in a growing season, probably. Again, don't know about inside.

If you prune out the rhizomes regularly, that'd slow things down significantly. You'd just have one central plant with growth pushing upwards instead of the plant focusing on its usual spreading. You have to lift the plant out of the pot to do that anyway, so you'll be able to see each time how root-bound it is.

Mint in a 4 inch pot? Maybe for a month or two before it'd need repotted. It grows quick in good conditions. Chives might work for a bit. As would parsley. But nothing will grow long term in a pot that size. If you're stuck with 4 inch pots then consider the herbs sacrificial and have back up plants started to replace the older ones.

Rodney

I have a couple of 4-inch pots with Greek Oregano from selfseeding. They are two years old and look OK so far.