Fresh Herbs On Hand

One of the reasons I love spring so much is because spring means planting gardens and growing things outside. This was all well and good when I had a house with a real yard and an accommodating landlord who let me dig a huge hole in the backyard to fill with dirt and have a garden. Living in a townhouse with a concrete backyard and a manicured front stoop have taken that option away from me. But, I persist, and despite the minimal direct sunlight of a first floor townhouse apartment, I have still managed to create at least a little herb garden.

It began with some green onions. I wondered what would happen if I threw them in some dirt or some water since they always come with their roots still attached. Well, these were the spring onions I used to make the korean dumplings a while back, and guess what? The kept growing! This is about a week's worth of growth. I had chopped these babies down to just above the white section. Hydroponic green onions.



And then, last weekend, much to my joy... the local garden store was finally stocked with locally grown herbs. Yaaaaay! So I bought the ones I thought I would use, chives (yes, yes, yes, I know I have hydroponic green onions, but I use both chives and green onions often). Italian flat leaf parsley, basil, and cilantro rounded out the collection. All things I use often, hate paying $2.00 for a bunch when I only need 1 tablespoon, and then have to find a way to not waste the rest of the bunch. The indirect sunlamp coupled with an indoor grow lamp should do the trick. The silly herbs are just sitting in their original containers because I accidentally bought a bag of plant food instead a bag of potting soil. That got remedied in the middle of the week and so they are settling happily in their new home.