Other titles suggested for this entry:
-
Herb Gardenito
-
Herb Garden-Lite
-
I Never Promised You An Herb Garden
Sage.
As previously mentioned, we’ve been doing quite a bit of landscaping in the backyard lately. We’ve been fortunate to have really smashing weather for the past few weekends and figured that now was the time, if any, before it got rancidly hot again in — oh, say — March.
One of my small contributions to the landscaping efforts was the introduction of an herb “garden.” I had originally wanted to plant an entire vegetable garden with heads of cabbage and thick rows of collard greens and beets, with lovely, fragrant herbs throughout. But that hasn’t quite panned out yet, for several reasons:
-
We don’t get enough sun in the backyard;
-
Neither of us have much spare time to tend to a vegetable patch;
-
It would require even more landscaping work and we’re exhausted;
-
I have the Black Thumb of Death (this is perhaps the most important consideration)
So, instead of a true Southern vegetable patch, I’ve reconciled myself to starting off with three tiny pots of herbs. If I don’t manage to kill those, then we’re off to a good start!
Cilantro.
I purchased some cilantro, parsley and sage at Wabash Feed Store while poking around aimlessly last Sunday morning, looking at chickens and fat little rabbits (this is what I do with my spare time). There was no rhyme or reason to the purchase, other than that I really love cooking with all three herbs, although definitely not at the same time.
After purchasing a bag of wormcastings to start the herbs off on a good, wormy foot (and also purchasing a sawed-off cow’s femur with marrow and tendons and gooey chunks of fat still intact for our dog), I came home and planted our “herb gardenette.”
A short four days later, they seem to be doing well. My father brought me two additional herbs — lavender plants — and they seem to be fitting in quite nicely with the sage. I’ve been plucking cilantro leaves off right and left, however — popping them into my mouth like candy. I should probably stop doing that; the poor thing is already starting to look bare.
Wish us luck in our gardening explorations!
Tiny herb garden, top left-center.
she eats. 