Greetings and Happy Wednesday! I’m moving a bit slow this week. I’ve had appointments and reservations to make and bills to pay. Not fun stuff. What IS fun is planting my compact herb garden! Ummm, but where is Spring?
Yesterday I ran out to Home Depot to pick up a few garden basics. I like to buy my soil and some of the more common plants like perennials at Home Depot since they tend to cheaper than a nursery. If you go early in the season, Home Depot and the big box store’s crops look great when they first come in, but they tend to get lax about watering so often the plants deteriorate quickly. So, go early! This sight makes me SO happy!
I ended up going to a local nursery for my herbs. They look nice and healthy and I’m hoping it’s not too early to plant them. I think they will be okay but isn’t this weather fickle? The high today is 61!
Although Pennsylvania winters are usually harsh, a few of my herbs come back year after year. My chives and mint are reliable about coming back. This year my sage and rosemary came back too! That was a surprise! Here was the state of my herb garden before I trimmed it back and pulled out the dead plants:
A few years ago I bought these cute little herb markers at my favorite nursery, Bucks Country Gardens. I bought this green wooden box there too. I’m afraid this will be its last year. Sadly it’s starting to rot.
And here is the freshly planted compact herb garden! Not only is is sweet to look at but it’s right off the veranda so its handy to run out and clip fresh herbs anytime we want. In a few weeks it will be twice the size! I am particularly fond of basil.
I didn’t have the heart to pull out the rosemary from last year since it made such a valiant effort to come back. So, it is sort of scraggly and spilling over the front. I don’t have markers for the chives or the fennel, but no worries. I just use the ones that came in the pots.
My husband and I love to use fresh herbs when we cook. It really makes a difference in how things taste. I’ve also had a lot of success with jalapeño plants. They are SO easy to grow and every few days it gives you several jalapeño peppers. My Mother told me you can freeze jalapeño peppers too. You just wash and dry them and stick them in a freezer bag and pull them out as needed. So, I started doing this and it works great! I will transplant the jalapeño and tomato plants to a larger pot. You can see there are already a few jalapeño peppers on the plant!
And the mint keeps spreading EVERYWHERE. Luckily several of my neighbors love mint so I keep pulling it out and it keeps coming back. I love putting mint in my tea and infused water, but just be cautious where you plant it because it WILL spread. This is all from last year…
Well, I hope you have a great day! Happy planting! Thank you for stopping by! xoxo Dell and the mint.