My Ultimate: My (small, potted) Green Thumb

("My Ultimate" will run most Tuesdays and will feature any topic that hops into my head.  The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the other New England Mamas. . . although they should).

The first time I saw my house, I looked straight up in the air and said joyfully, "TREES!  Look at all the trees!", tripped over a step, fell on my hands and knees, ripped my new pants and got covered in rock salt.  I then looked like I had worn torn acid-washed jeans to the Open House.  My husband knew at that moment that this was the house for us.

And, now, eight years later, I still love the trees that surround our property (except in the fall), but they are not good for one thing:  vegetable gardening.  Neither are the deer, rabbits, fox and other creatures that sneak into our yard at night to see what they can eat.   So, for local, organic vegetables, we turned to a CSA (what?  you don't know what a CSA is?  read about it here).

But, I am still determined to give gardening a try, albeit on a much smaller scale.  So, last year, I grabbed some large flower pots and stuck some herbs and tomato plants in them.  The pots were placed on our very sunny steps, just outside our front door.  That summer, visitors coming to our door were flanked by basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme, along with a few tomatoes that were produced on our one plant. 

This year, I'm going bigger.  I've increased the number of pots to seven.  I have one pot devoted solely to basil since I can never have enough pesto.  I've added cilantro, lemon thyme, mint and a pot of strawberries to our mix.  Taking care of them is a snap since there are very few weeds that appear, I can water them with a jug I fill in the kitchen and the critters that would munch them in my yard are less likely to boldly walk up my front steps to take a bite.

I used to have pots of flowers near my front entrance.  Now I have herbs and small vegetables.  I find the latter to be much more satisfying.

Comments

[bob]

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[Kate]

We've done the herb-pots thing for several years. I had one successful garden in Keene, but since then have been too busy to give it the proper attention. Just the other night, my husband was talking about starting a garden in our backyard, and I said, "Well, why don't we just plan on going to the Portsmouth farmer's market once a week instead?" Hence, no veggie garden at our house again this year, because we're supporting the local economy! Eating organic! NOT WEEDING!

But I love my herbs. I have four pots this year, and am giving serious consideration to doubling that. I also have started a thriving raspberry bush, which I will either transplant or replicate when we move. And with a little luck, we'll move someplace within a reasonable drive of a CSA... because right now, we decidedly are not.