2012 The Living Room Garden

I'm taking a break from all the historical mumbo-jumbo stuff about when Evan and I moved with a little mid-winter gardening.

I found four small terracotta pots that were hiding in the garage that sparked an idea for putting some seeds in. I believe they were in a kit to grow herbs. Bingo! I wanted some fresh herbs for our winter meals. So, off to Lowe's we went to get some dirt and seeds to fill my pots!

I picked up Dill, Basil, Cilantro, and Parsley.

Next, I found a pretty dish to house our four pots to sit in. I picked out a round flat one my mom purchased at her local Asian store for my birthday last year. This dish makes it easy if I ever wanted to take them outside or move them easily off the dining room table where it will sit for the majority of time in the southern exposure. The dish was a little too skinny at the base for the four pots to sit in evenly. Fortunately, I had a vase of flat cat eye marbles not in use and spread a layer out to lift up the pots. It worked out nicely.

Once I filled the pots with the new moist dirt and sowed my seeds, I figured a bottom of a used water bottle would create a nice greenhouse effect for the germinating seeds. Can you say, 'Re-Use it!"? Yes! I cut the top off and pushed the bottle in slightly to secure the bottle. Using the extra remaining flat marbles, I set them around the pots on the outside of the bottle to give it that extra hold and decorative center piece, finished look.

Lastly, I used some metal chopsticks I picked up at our local Korean store that can easily be washed and reused for food use later. I will make some better marker signs later. Maybe. It depends. In the meantime, masking tape works just fine. I marked each seed variety and when the germinating seeds should emerge on each chop stick and marked my calendar.

Now, I sit and wait to see if my little idea will grow. It is early for starting seeds for the garden, but with the weather outside lately, I feel like we should have leaves on the trees already. Temperatures in the 50s and 60s have been the norm lately this past December and January. I wish I had started a cold weather garden in the fall to have lettuce and other hardy winter garden plants going. They would have done amazingly this winter. My mom's lettuce from her garden was so tasty and fresh for a December sandwich. I loved the peppery crisp to it and long for more, hoping that I will have that this year in my backyard garden.