Monday, February 28, 2011

Four out of six ain't bad!

from left: rosemary, basil, and mint
After a few weeks you can really see the progress being made by my tiny green herbs! Out of the six I planted four have started to sprout and are even almost recognizable. I haven't seen any action from the cilantro or the parsley so I made need to replant them.
basil

chives

rosemary

mint


I am making sure they get plenty of sunlight and enough water, but not too much.  It is also best to water in the morning so that the soil can dry out during the day and then mold won't develop in the soil.

Monday, February 14, 2011

herb garden update

It looks like my herb garden is off to a good start. I can already see a few tiny green sprouts coming up from the soil in the pot where the basil is planted as well as the rosemary. Another week and there will hopefully be a little more to look at.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

herbal oasis

Over the past year I have started to really enjoy cooking and have certainly buffed up on my cooking skills. In my spare time I indulge in several cooking shows and even a few blogs. Some of my favorites are French Food at Home with Laura Calder which you can find at http://www.cookingchanneltv.com and my sister's blog of course, http://www.keepitsimplefoods.com/. Through all of my new cooking experiments I have learned that one of the smallest things that has the greatest effect on the flavors of any recipe, new or old, is fresh herbs. They are so much better than the dried ones that you shake out of a plastic bottle, but they are so pricey at the grocery store. My new project is an herb garden. I have thought about trying it out several times before, but this time I'm doing it.

filling up my pots


seed packets

Last week I made a trip to my local home improvement store and selected a set of small pots that would look superb in my kitchen window. I also picked up some potting soil and a few seed packets of my favorite herbs, parsley, rosemary, basil, cilantro, chives, and mint. Just a little bit of water everyday and plenty of sun and I will have a beautiful and useful herb garden in no time!

one set of pots resting in the window


winter garden

Well, my seeds finally arrived and I finished planting my winter garden a few months ago. This time I sectioned off my garden into a grid-like pattern, so each vegetable would have a 3x3 plot to grow in. Inside of each 3x3 square I made long, skinny rows or mounds to plant my seeds in. All together I planted one plot of carrots, one of onions, one of broccoli, one of peas, and two of spinach.

pea plants
As usual in Texas we have had a variety of weather this winter. Freezing cold days, even one with a little snow, and beautiful sunny ones too. Not very much rain however. I was starting to doubt that anything was going to sprout from my garden, after several months of staring at the earth, then I finally started to see some growth around the new year. Not a lot of action, but the peas and spinach seem to be on their way....plus it looks like I have some weeding to do!

spinach plant