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Another gardening attempt: herbs and vegetables

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April has been an unusual month of spending an inordinate amount of time at home.

So this month, for a lack of fun things to do, we are growing our own herbs. Maybe a pinch of homegrown herbs will spice up our dishes. This time around I’m taking really good care of them with daily watering (just the right amount) and placing them by the window for daily fresh air and sunshine. They’ve had a few tumbles as I move them on and off the windowsill. Still, they are standing up to my clumsiness and thriving. My goal is to transplant them to bigger pots in the next few weeks. Organic soil and fertilizer have arrived from Target and we’re going to do more container gardening.

I bought an herbs kit from a family-operated farm called Spade to Fork, and it came with everything you need to start your herbs garden. It also came with detailed instructions of how to plant, transplant, to prune and harvest. I dislike reading instructions or following them, but this instruction pamphlet (glossy too) is essential for a black thumb person like me. My kids are surprised that I haven’t thrown it away yet. It says to call if you have questions and having that reassurance makes me feel more confident as a gardener. Sometimes just knowing that someone can help makes all the difference.

We’re also growing peas and regrowing leek bottoms in containers. For these vegetables, I’m going by my previous years’ experience and making modifications to keep them alive.

Herb seed kit. So convenient and good for black thumbs like me.
Green pea seeds that opened up on a wet paper towel over 3 days
Onion heads and dried egg shells
Parsley seedlings. The seed at the top of the stem is a new thing I’ve seen.
Pea shoots in strawberry clam container with its own drainage holes. Great way to recycle.

Categories: Container Gardening

Tagged as:

singlikewildflowers

Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. I'm an avid nature photographer and a daydreaming thinker. My posts revolve around photos of nature's beauty, homeschooling adventures with my 2 kids, sporadic reflections on my child's heart condition, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and other mish mash things. Hopefully you'll leave encouraged, pensive, or smiling at the simple things of life. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!

27 replies ›

    1. This herb kit is pretty convenient and good! The herbs are still seedlings, but they are growing and peeping out of the pots. The scent of mint and rosemary must be nice! Try the peas. We haven’t seen any peas yet, but the leaves are broad and pretty. Hope you get a good harvest this season!

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Rosemary does have a distinct scent. I used to roast chicken with rosemary and it gave the dish a really nice flavor and aroma.
        We love that dish but it’s a hassle to buy rosemary when I only use one leaf and then waste the others.
        Happy gardening and hope everything is well with your family and grandbabies!

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      3. Oh, I don’t use rosemary for cooking. The bush gets so big and I trim it a lot. Them I go to the market and see how expansive to buy!! I make casserole, wonder if it works for the dish.

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      4. Your mentioning the bush reminds me that there was one by our old home growing by the community parking lot. It was very fragrant, but I got nervous to cook with it.
        Herbs are very expensive at the market and you tend to use so little when cooking unless it’s a major batch. Maybe you could use it in a casserole…should google a recipe with it. lol. I mainly cook Korean food.
        Hope you have a great weekend and stay well. 🙂

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      5. My husband uses mint to make his green smoothie. The fresh rosemary in the market looks like my plant, so I don’t think it was processed in any ways, but I don’t know if people mix rosemary in dishes. It looks like pine needles to me so I don’t know if it gets soften after it’s cooked. I haven’t tried yet. Happy Mother’s Day to you. 🙂

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      6. It’s been a while since I cooked with it, but I think it stays like pine needles but softer. It has a very strong scent.
        I looked up uses for rosemary and there’s many: used for cooking in casseroles, soups, salads; dryer sheets, decoration, pest control. It’s so awesome how a natural herb could be used for many purposes. I love learning about those things. It’s another story when I actually apply them. Big heaping mess!
        Hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day!

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      7. I haven’t done too much cooking. When I was working, I barely had time to make a quick meal or just buy take-out food. After my husband retired he took on “full time” cooking and I just cook once a week. I made casserole dish several times the last two months.

        I had a wonderful Mother’s Day video chatted with my daughter!

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      8. What kind of casserole dish do you make?
        It’s nice that your husband does all the cooking to give you a break…takes some stress out of the daily duties.
        Thank goodness for video chats! I’m a bit shy with it still that I’ll have to overcome soon.
        Take care and good night! Have a great Wednesday.

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      9. I’ve been making sausage and vegetables casserole. My husband likes it, even though I would like to try something else, I think he wants me to do the same because he likes sausage.

        You must be on the west coast. It’s 6:12 pm right now on Wednesday.

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      10. Sausages are good…who doesn’t like them?! Maybe you could try a new dish when you feel like trying something new. We got an air fryer from Costco recently that makes our meal making easier: we use it for salmon, chicken, beef, reheating, french fries.
        Yes, we are in Northern California.

        Liked by 1 person

      11. Oh, we’re at south, so we’re a distant neighbor rather than across the ocean! My husband tries his recipes to cook salmon, chicken and beef. I usually let him take charge.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. Spring is the season for gardening and all this sunshine will make our harvest colorful and productive!! What are you growing?
      My favorite is herbs now. I can’t wait to add some basil and parsley to our pasta.
      Happy gardening to you too! Have a wonderful time in your garden. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, so true! I started with an ochro tree. Hopefully, I won’t lose interest as I tend to easily do with everything (sad, but true). Awesome! Herbs are always nice to start a garden project with. Thank you, my friend, and same to you. 😄

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      2. Hey Diana, I have the same issue of getting bored quickly! I wish I could maintain the interest longer. But I can’t force it.
        I just ordered new herb pots for growing herbs and will transplant them soon. It’ll be nice to use some basil for our homemade pizzas. We’re also growing peas and just planted zuchinni seeds. Read that they’re easy to grow.
        Have a great weekend!

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      3. Yes, I’ve also learned that I can’t force it, but this time, I really want to try my best to see it through.

        Awesome! Have fun with it and I hope you get that basil. Oh, yes, peas are easy to grow. Well, happy gardening!

        Thank you and here’s to a blessed week!

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  4. When I worked at the diner during college people we saved coffee grinds and egg shells and people brought in containers to use these items for their gardens. Looking good Esther!

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    1. Isn’t it great that things you normally throw away could be used for gardening purposes?! I didn’t know either until I started gardening myself. I didn’t know what kind of fertilizer to buy so googling it advised those common kitchen items! It’s free of cost and pesticides. Love it.
      I don’t know if they still do this, but Starbucks gave away coffee grinds to gardeners.
      Thank you! I’m happy you like my little container crops!!

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      1. I did like your container crops – that makes sense as Starbucks sure would have enough of them, or any of the coffee shops as well. And the eggshells have lots of minerals I heard. Customers at the diner would put their name on a list for both coffee grounds and eggshells. We had lots of them. I brought home coffee grounds for the lawn and when it rained, it smelled heavenly!

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      2. It’s amazing how food scraps or common things in the refrigerator can be doubled for other uses! I’m a big fan of finding alternative uses for things. I’m sure you know how lemon can be used for cleaning house and orange peels for cleaning dirty pans.
        Yes, the smell of coffee grounds in rain sounds delicious.

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      3. Yes and a million uses for vinegar and it won’t harm you. There is no nicer smell than fresh coffee, but lemonsand oranges have such a fresh scent too.

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    1. Yes, rosemary is great too! I used to cook with it in one chicken dish. Not familiar with tarragon at all but I will check it out. As of the moment, I’m growing parsley, cilantro, basil, thyme, and sage. Happy they are growing and haven’t died yet.
      Happy gardening to you too!

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