Something that constantly irritates me at the grocery store is when you need herbs. But it’s not parsley or cilantro, so you have to get it in those tiny plastic packets in the organic section. They costs $4 a pop and half of the packet’s contents are usually discolored when you purchase it. If you don’t incorporate the herb into a recipe as soon as you unpack your groceries, the entire flimsy box will be completely unusable in a day or two.
Not to mention, this is even if the grocery store has the herb you want. Sometimes they will have several boxes of the same wilted herb. Other times, they will have every herb except the one you need.
At this point, I really like to use fresh herbs and it’s becoming oh so apparent that my grocery store sourcing is not only expensive and frustrating, but also inefficient. I need fresh dill for pickles, four different fresh herbs for ranch dressing. Let’s face it, nothing beats the presentation of a fresh basil leaf on pasta or pizza. So what’s a chef cat to do?
I’m going to start an herb garden.
At least, I’m going to try to. Not only am I historically completely inept at keeping plants of any kind alive (I once killed a cactus by not watering it enough), I also have two curious cats who once killed my husband’s houseplant. Which he will never forget nor forgive, Nova and Triton.
Despite the deck being stacked against me, I decided that it was worth a try if I could solve this problem. Also, it would be nice to keep a plant alive for the first time in my entire life. Just one. I’m not asking for much. I hope…
Anyway, I found a list on Serious Eats for their top herb gardens (I freaking love them, they have thought of everything) and purchased the overall winner. Because I need all the help I can get. Then It was off to Lowe’s to pick out seeds!
By the way, why are there so many kinds of parsley? Do we need that many? It seems excessive and confusing. I had to just pick which one to grab, so I ended up going with one where the picture looked closest to what I get in the grocery store.
The lavender was just something for me. I love the smell of lavender. Also, the garden had 12 spaces for seeds and it seemed silly not to get 12 corresponding herbs. Also, you can use lavender in place settings. I’ve seen people put in napkin folds and whatnot. So cute!
Naturally, I will change things around as I go along, provided I don’t just massacre all these plants. Because I know I will not need a steady stream of fresh marjoram.
To make sure I was fully prepped, I called my mother-in-law to ask what I can only assume are insanely basic gardening questions to an expert gardener. But she was super patient and assured me that herb gardens were pretty simple and gardening is trial and error at the best of times. I just had to get in there and see what worked and what didn’t.
I will post updates once I set everything up and once it all starts to grow. The last piece is seeing how the cats react to the garden. I only hope they lose all interest immediately and my husband eventually lets them off the hook for his long departed houseplant.
