What should I do with my herb garden in the winter?

My daughter lives in Brooklyn, and she brings her herbs in from her balcony every year. The weather in NYC is getting colder and we in the East have seen some pretty interesting winter storms. The plants that she does well with are oregano, rosemary, marjoram, and sage. She does not do well with "annual" herbs, and her mint plants are iffy - they tend to die back.

Thanks everyone—super helpful responses. I think I'm going to try my luck with leaving the herbs outside while turning the basil into some sort of pesto or green sauce. Hopefully, they'll come back in the spring but if not CV is right, they're cheap enough to buy again once it gets warm.

I'd move the containers closer to the building; that can make the difference of 5-10 degrees, certainly enough to reduce the number of chances of frost damage or casualty percentage.

Personally, I wouldn't bother trying to move them indoors. Herbs are pretty inexpensive plants, and if something doesn't make it through the winter, start from seeds or seedlings in the spring. Heck, that's the natural way anyhow.

I live in a small condo, I don't have room for an indoor nursery, even if it is only seasonal.

I plant mine in the ground because I think they do better. That said, I live in a place where the winter kills them all. I have good luck freezing thyme & rosemary whole on the stem in freezer bags which gives me the freedom to use them various ways. I also freeze parsley stems for use in stock. In addition, I have also frozen chopped herbs in water or olive oil in ice cube trays.

I wouldn't bring them in. I live in Oregon and my hearty herbs (thyme and rosemary etc.) just get moved over to a sheltered area of my deck. They slow way down, but always come back even stronger in Spring. Basil always dies and I replant it. Dill, tarragon and oregano sometimes survive and sometimes don't depending on our Winter. I would never bring them inside because I grow my herbs organically, so I would be inviting bugs of some sort in.

You should be concerned, but it's about all you can do. Most of the perennial herbs such as thyme, oregano, marjoram, sage, rosemary etc. are not very prone to insects, but you should look them over; certain bugs will go wild indoors. Annuals and biennials (parsley, basil, cilantro et. al have likely had it, better to restart them in spring. Shock isn't really a problem moving plants indoors, but they're likely to struggle with low light and shouldn't be watered or fed much, or otherwise encouraged to grow. Shock can be a problem when you move them back out, largely from ultraviolet light, which is mostly blocked by plants and can burn plants not accustomed to it, and from temperature- your best bet would be to move them outside during good weather and bring them in at nights, at least until freezes are no longer a danger.