Monday, April 4, 2011

Tales of an Herb Garden -- Part One

I’m revamping my herb garden this year.  I normally grow rosemary, several kinds of basil, thyme, oregano and a couple types of mint.  I learned a long time ago how to keep the mint in check, but when I added chives a couple of years ago (and was warned about their tendency to invade), I had no idea what havoc I was wreaking.  Now, my garden is choked with chives and I plan to dig everything up and start over this year.
Inspired by my neighbors (Louise and Barry) who have been growing tomatoes from seeds indoors in preparation for their summer garden (they were kind enough to share several seedlings with me, so I have a jump start, as well), I’m now attempting to start some herbs for my garden.
I picked up a very affordably priced Jiffy brand “professional” greenhouse that provides starter peat pellets.  These come in different sizes – I opted for the 36 pellet version – so I can have some variety and share the anticipated wealth.  It was so much fun searching through the seeds to decide what to grow that I was half tempted to purchase more than one starter kit.  But, I came to my senses and made the tough choices.  So, I am now growing sweet basil, spicy globe basil (not always easy to find in seedlings and so delicious), rosemary (I’ll share my rosemary pork tenderloin recipe at a later time), and fennel.  Yep, I love fennel.  Never have grown it, but hey, how hard can it be?  I’m thinking I will plant some of it in big pots that sit at the bottom of my deck stairs.  They will be ornamental and yet delicious.  Plus, Barb promises to share her salmon gravlax recipe with me (and with our readers). 
So, I followed the directions on my kit and planted the seeds yesterday.  I’ll keep you posted! 
Sharon

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