I’ve been traveling for work the past few weeks and that looks like it will continue for a while yet. To cheer myself up and stop wasting so much money on herbs and produce I don’t eat, I convinced my boyfriend that we should plant a few things on the back deck.
The impetus for gardening was a housecleaning gift from his mom. She had some extra hanging baskets and tiki torches she didn’t need anymore after she remodeled her backyard so she gave them to us as a reverse-Mother’s Day gift. Boyfriend was hot to send everything away via Freecycle, but I thought we really could do ok with planting a few items in them.
As much as I love flowers, I love to eat more. We decided that planting a few herbs and peppers would serve us best. Our list came out to rosemary, basil, thyme, parsley and hot & sweet peppers. (Jalapeno and Anaheim) We have a mix of seedlings and sprouted seeds because I could not pass up the cute seedlings at the Farmer’s Market and the faster availability of fresh herbs. ($10 for three)
Other supplies:
Bag of dirt ($4)
Coco fiber basket liners (~$6 I think, I can’t figure out which item it is on the receipt)
Seeds ($10 for 5 but we have to return some, net cost $4)
For about $30 bucks I hope to have herbs all summer and fall. I hope dry out the thyme at the end of the season for my winter stews and roasts. Rosemary does ok in the winter and my next door neighbor knows how to pickle and can items, so our extra peppers might end up in jars for later.
I’m just happy that in 6 herb harvests, this venture will have paid for itself. I spend about $3-5 per bunch of herbs at the grocery store and lots of it goes to waste unless I ‘dry’ them out in the refrigerator. (That was a happy accidental discovery in the back of the fridge. Now I make a point of separating bunches, washing the herbs and loosely putting them into a plastic bucket in the fridge. It works great!)
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