Recently in Herbs Category

From time to time I get emails or comments from very nice ladies (Hi, Ladies!) who often tell me they live vicariously through my life on my blog. Be it gardening, milk goats, baking, sewing, spinning, etc or all of the above so many of you out there express similar desires to do some of the same things I do but feel you can't because of your current living arrangements.I am here today to tell you to stop that and to encourage you to participate with me. Make it happen for yourself wherever you are. You can do it on a small scale and have wonderful results right now.

Right now! Don't wait.

You don't have to spend alot of money. In your apartment or townhouse you can grow herbs and other fresh food! Even in a HOA subdivision you can have it all. There is always a work around.

Let's start with growing herbs. In a pot. On your balcony or your stoop or your front steps or out back in your tiny postage stamp townhouse yard.

You can scavange around for a planter or a pot. You can be creative and use other decorative items for your planting container. You can spend a little money and invest in something that makes a statement about your decorative tastes. Whatever it takes get a pot or some sort of planter. A nice sized one 16 inch diameter or larger if you have a place for it will hold lots of herbs. If not think about a window box that you could set along a step, or on a sunny spot on your balcony. I know some apartment complexs don't allow things to hang or be on the railing but very pretty plants and hanging baskets are most commonly allowed. If you can't set a pot try hanging a basket.

I have two of these terra cotta clay pots on my front porch.For the past couple of years they have held pineapple tops that I rooted. Only the pineapple tops died last fall due to my forgetting to drag them in when we had our first frost. Ooops! So the pots have been sitting empty for a while.

For a pot this size I needed some fresh potting soil and some herbs. I chose basil, curley parsley, tri-color sage, chocolate peppermint and golden thyme. I chose these because I like them but also the variety of color pleased me. You could also plant seeds in your pot(s) and though it will take longer for them to grow and produce it is a huge money saver and you can reseed as needed.

These small herb cups where $1.29 each at my local plant center. I could have started them from seed but I wanted instant gratification so I bought the already well established little plants. Into the pot. Lots of fresh soil packed in around them. A good watering and time in the sun. Voile! An instant herb garden.

If you are starting from scratch you will need some rocks in the bottom of your pot for drainage. If you are using a pot that isn't meant to be a pot to plant directly into you will also need to punch some holes in the bottom to let the water drain out as needed.

You can also plant in a cheap plastic pot and later when you have found a decorative pot you can simply sit your plastic pot into your more decorative planter. 

With a little TLC, weekly feeding and water (daily watering when the temps are scorching) and there will be plenty of fresh herbs for most any dish for supper.

These pots are heavy when filled with rocks for drainage, potting soil, plants and water. I put them on casters for ease of movement. Here where we are the summer temps will climb to one hundred and above by the time late August rolls around. The sun is a scorcher and no amount of water will keep the tender leaves from burning. With the pots on wheels I can move them in out of the sun as needed. The morning sun is most desired and by the time the midday sun comes around I can move them back a bit where they don't take the full brunt of the sizzling rays.

I labled this photo so you can see which plants are which. I chose 3 taller plants for the middle of my pot (basil, sage, parsley) and low growing, creeping type plants for the outer ring (thyme and chocolate mint). You can see how the thyme and mint are growing down the sides of the pots now. It took barely a week for these pots to take off and the newly planted look to disappear.

I want to encourage you to make yourself smile. If you can't do a big pot maybe you could do a grouping of a few small pots each with one type of herb. One small pot on each step with lovely foliage is an attractive look. You can do it. So get busy. That's an order. When you finish come back and tell me about it. I would like to see what you are doing.

Spring of '07 I planted one little ninety-nine cent cup of mint. It was planted not only as an herb to use but mainly as a plant to pretty up the little rock path from the back door to the pool. It certainly has done its job. I love walking past and catching the hint of mint in the air.

It came up a fairly heavy rain last night. The night rains wash away the stale funk of heated days and usually leave cool damp mornings in their wake. This morning the mint is dancing in the air. From where I sit every once in a while I catch it's perfume as I type. It is a pleasant feeling. I always smile and feel lifted when I can catch a hint of things from the yard as they pass through the window and find me in the house. Not just the mint and herbs but other things too like the honeysuckle across the yard from our bedroom window

The under a dollar plant is now 100+ times its original size. It extends four foot in one direction and about three feet in another. I seem to have put this one in a perfect place for it to thrive. The parsley did not like being its neighbor and ran away never to be seen again.

So, here's where I need your help. We use the mint for drinks - mojitos, mint juleps, etc and for garnishes and such. However, I am not satisfied. I want to do more with it.

I will be making mint jelly. I mean, we raise lambs for goodness sake. We have to have the mint jelly. Oh, this reminds me. When the backyard initially sprount green and grew knee deep over night thanks to 15 straight days of rain (NOT complaining!) we put the sheep in the back area andlet them eat down all the green grassy goodness. Like goats they pretty much ate everything else too. They are fabulous at pruning bushes! However, they do not like the mint. They ate the peonies, the forsythia and other things along the path but gave the mint a wide birth. Interesting, no?

I will transplant some of the mint to be closer to the honeybee boxes. The mint is good for them and helps keep away mites that can make them sick.

But what else can I do with it? I need some ideas here. I do plan to invest in a new dehydrator this year but right now it seems to early to wack it out up and dry it. I save the drying for late summer.

What can I do with eight feet of fresh mint that just keeps growing?