green joy
“God gave all men all earth to love but since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove beloved over all.”
~Rudyard Kipling
This past weekend it was so gorgeous I decided to plant my herb garden…
and yesterday I had to bring it back into the house.
I’m glad I did because there’s a
light dusting of snow out there this morning.
lavender
for lemonade, shortbread and sachets…
parsley
for salads, tabbouleh, and pretty garnishes…
thyme…
for soups, lemonade and oven roasted potatoes
oregano…
for pizza sauce, pasta dishes and chicken
rosemary
for
focaccia, lemonade and to scent grilling meat
mint
for iced tea, lemonade, greek dishes and chocolate desserts
and
basil
for lemonade, bruschetta and pesto!
coming soon…
rose geranium
for
making Bonnie’s tearoom cake…
chives
tomatoes
beans
fancy lettuce varieties
onions
radishes
carrots
strawberries
and a variety of flowers!
What are you planting this year?
~Melissa
The kids and I plan to plant thyme, mint, basil, cilantro, parsley and my chives, lavendar & rhubarb are already resprouting from previous years. Strawberry bed needs to be thinned & refinished and I plan to add blueberry bushes. For veggies we’re doing cucumbers, carrots, radishes, beans, corn, tomatoes, canteloupe & peppers.
Oooh! That sounds so good. I totally forgot about peppers and cucumbers. Of course I have to plant those too 🙂
YUMMY! Glad you decided to lug those big pots inside! The hubster and I were talking about doing herbs this year, and maybe a little garden in the back yard. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans. Not a whole lot of room to work with, but we should be able to squeeze 1 plant each in there! Seeing those herbs makes me hungry!
They’re HUGE! I wanted containers that would allow the roots to expand so I wouldn’t have to do a transplant half way through the summer, or risk the herbs getting ‘leggy.’ Oy. Hauling them in was a workout! 🙂
There’s almost always room for container gardens. This has other advantages too…I treat my plants to the very best soil (infused with Miracle Grow) when I do containers because comparatively you don’t need as much as you would for a raised bed…so I go all out 😉 My plants are very happy all summer as a result. Also, if the weather forecast says hail is on the way you can lug them to a safe place.
ps…Another great plant fertilizer is Osmocote. It’s slowly released into the soil and doesn’t require as many applications as Miracle Grow.
I hope you brought them in so they didn’t get covered with snow. I would think if you didn’t they would get plant shock.
they are all safe and sound. I got them in before the snow flew 🙂
I want to grow the best, most flavorful herbs – any suggestions for doing this in our MN climate?? I grew some things in the garden last year with the vegetables, but I got the feeling that it wasn’t “good enough”. Just throwing them in the general soil, with the general “population” seemed mediocre and lazy. What do you think??
I believe that keeping the herbs somewhat separate will improve their flavor. Plants will sometimes “adopt” the flavor of a plant they’re planted next to. In ChinDeep I featured a “Wagon Wheel Herb Garden” where you lay a wagon wheel on a bed of soil and plant a different herb in each of the sections. If you have a narrow garden space, you can use a ladder 🙂
I don’t think ANY gardening is lazy, hee hee…but I do think it helps to know a few tips!
XO