A Windowsill Garden: Growing Your Own Herbs

I admire people who garden and yearn for the day when I can feed myself from my own back yard. But unfortunately I don’t have a green thumb. Even when I buy fresh cut flowers at the farmer’s market they are dead within days. Yet it also annoys me to spend hard earned cash to buy a bunch of fresh herbs costing a few bucks for a recipe that calls for “a pinch” and then only be able to eat my way through a fraction of the bunch before they wilt and I’m forced to throw them away. So I decided to give growing herbs a try. I was skeptical because we live in one of the grayest cities in America and I didn’t know how they would fare with the lack of direct sunshine, but when in Rome…

First, I thought about what herbs I use the most and settled on basil, rosemary, oregano and thyme. Next, I had to decide whether to grow my herbs from seeds or plants. I chose plants because I wanted to eat my herbs right away and wasn’t sure I could be patient enough to tend to the seedlings before giving up hope. Next I went to the gardening store and grabbed a bag of organic potting soil and my plants. I found some jazzy pots (because that always makes a planting adventure more fun), found a spot by the window that at least offered decent indirect light, and put my new plants in their new home. It is true that you can’t abandon them for a week and expect to come back to a flourishing plant, but they are hardy little guys. I water them every couple days, roll up my shades before work so they can get some light, and have had as many herbs as one person can ask for! I’ve learned that growing herbs is great entry into gardening for a non-gardener like myself. And the added bonuses are that I have a constant rotation of herbs I can throw into various dishes on the fly (tomato sauce, pesto, egg scrambles and more) and have eye-appealing window decor that doubles as food.

Quick Facts I learned about my herbs:

• If your basil starts overtaking your pot, you can quickly blanch the leaves in boiling water and stick them in your freezer.
• Rosemary sprigs help make a great roasted chicken. Stick a few sprigs in the cavity of your bird with a halved lemon and you’ll have a delicious dinner in no time. Plus, rosemary has a a long running reputation for improving memory, so the more you eat the less you will forget to water your plants!
• Oregano is high in antioxidants, so you can load up on the herb in your next recipe instead of having a second glass of green tea for the day.
• Insects are repelled by thyme. So if you have a bug problem, brew a cup of thyme tea, pour it into a spray bottle, and spray the perimeter of your doors to keep the pests away.

Tagged as: basil, garden, herbs, In the Field, oregano, rosemary, thyme