I ventured out to a nursery (the plant kind) this morning. All by myself. Alone. It was lovely, if slightly overwhelming. Do you know they sell all sorts of plants in little pots? Small ones, that you can conceivably make bigger. With water, and sunlight, and, um.....photosynthesis?
I've been cooking a bunch this past year, and I find myself using fresh herbs in lots of recipes. Dude, fresh herbs are expensive. And wilty.
So....I thought I'd grow my own and have super fresh herbs for cooking any time I want. This morning's adventure was originally just a recon mission until I realized that each plant cost the same or less than buying a package of that same cut herb at the grocers. I decided to just jump right in.
I came home with parsely, sage, cilantro, thyme, terragon, oregano, basil, and chives. Also fennel, a beautiful feathery plant that I have never actually cooked with but clearly should try because it is just too pretty.
Oh, and two pepper plants and one strawberry plant, you know, for extra credit. And some pots, fertilized soil, and rocks for drainage. (The nice garden-store lady told me about the rocks.) And that's pretty much it. I hope I didn't forget anything; I already have water and sunlight.
It seemed my sad, rusty, empty little plant stand was not going to cut it.
I had some cinder blocks and plywood in the basement and was able to quickly put together some dorm-style plant shelves. I moved the plants into bigger pots and now I have an herb garden!
See the tiny little pots up there? Those are all the little pots that the herbs came in. I wanted to use them for something so I asked Google how to propogate rosemary and mint. Google said I just take a cutting, strip half the leaves off, and plant it. I have a hardy impossible to kill rosemary plant and so so much mint already growing on the patio. We'll see if it works.
