Today, I stopped at Indigo on my way home from an appointment, and I saw some of those indoor herb gardens on sale for just $5 each, so I bought two, a Thai herb mix and Southern Italian herb mix, to go with the Herbal Tea mix that has been sitting unplanted in our apartment for years.
Upon moving here, we learned early that it's tough to get things to grow in our place. We're pretty green (not in the good way) when it comes to caring for plantlife. I've never been one for gardens because I am a) skittish when it comes to bugs and, to a lesser degree, water and other various envoironmental irritants (sun, air, etc.) b) allergic to some kind of pollen I haven't yet been able to filter out of the millions of different types. In terms of indoors, I haven't had much luck with small plants, having gotten a couple unidentified pots full o' greenery as presents from students and watched them die slow deaths. I always assume this is due to some combination of unfriendly growing environment and unskilled care. As for Nonsense, an incident with a rubber tree taught us early on that he isn't really the cultivatin' kind of nature enthusiast.
However, last summer, par hasard, I had bought a basil plant from a farmers market because I wanted some for cooking and they didn't have any loose basil there. It grew in our north-west facing window for several weeks, with very little care (I didn't even actually plant it, just set it in a glass of cool water which, once I realized it was budding new growth, I changed every once in a while), which gave me a tiny inkling of hope for the possibility of survival for future wards of the herbaceous variety.
I've wanted to get more basil plants going for some time, because we use quite a lot of it, and it's really nice when you can pick it fresh off the plant. Same with cilantro. We always buy fresh cilantro in the grocery store, but it usually comes in enormous bunches, so we're only able to use a tiny fraction of it before it wilts, which is so sad.
So, as I was saying, today I had fun playing with dirt and water and seeds, whilst planting these three tiny window planters. Three of the herbs in my little garden experiment are basil, thai basil, and cilantro. There's also chamomile, which is nice, because I've been wanting some chamomile tea for soothing moments, but between the two of us, Nonsense and I have a penchant for filling our cupboard with more tea than any 5 humans could possibly consume in a decade, and we've put a semi-official moratorium on tea purchases until we can whittle it down some.What with several seemingly low-maintenance plant varieties, a set of fairly simple care instructions, and actually knowing the names of each of the herbs and fruits I've planted, I'm hoping this year we can finally get a pretty and practical little kitchen garden going in our little corner of the world.
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