THE HOUSE DOCTOR - PART FIVE - SPICING UP MY SUMMER KITCHEN WITH AN HERB GARDEN

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

I have always wanted to have a summer spice/herb garden inside my kitchen window, so I made that one of my priority projects for early this summer.  I planted seeds to grow dill, cilantro, basil and oregano in pots that live right inside my kitchen window!  If this works well, I'll be adding more as I go along.  

There is nothing at all complicated about this folks.  It is just fun to do, and great to watch growing in your kitchen window.  Plant your own spice/herb garden with your grandchildren and let them see how God makes seeds to grow.  I planted part of my spice garden with my granddaughter.  She is just now toddling around and didn't have a clue what on earth we were playing in the dirt for, but she seemed to enjoy it anyway.  

Find some pots, get some dirt and purchase the type of seeds you wish to use and start planting!  I've even seen the seeds at the grocery store produce departments this year.  I bought mine at the hardware store in the garden section.  You can't see it yet in my pics, (unless you look VERY close) but my seeds are just now beginning to grow tiny little sprouts.  It has only been a few weeks since they were planted.  

The nice thing about doing this inside your kitchen window is that you can plant any time of the year, but I chose the traditional time of gardening probably because it made me feel more like an "official" gardener.  Maybe next year I will get even braver and move outside!  

All I did was fill up the colorful little buckets with wet dirt (it probably helped a lot that I chose to use the Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Soil Mix that I bought at Lowe's), made holes in the soil about two inches deep, lay the seeds down in the moist soil and covered them up without patting the dirt down very much, using only loose damp soil.  About once a week I water them, checking in-between times to be sure they are okay.  If the soil starts to look dry, I give them a drink, but not too much at once.

These decorative containers were bought at The Christmas Tree Store for just over $1 each, and the patriotic girl and boy cost me $7 each at the same store.  I probably created this whole project for under $25, and it will brighten up my beacy/patriotic summer kitchen a lot this year.

The real cool part of it all is that when these pots fill up with spices and herbs I'll have fresh herbs to add to all of my summer recipes!  Can't wait till it reaches that stage.  I'll post pics and summer recipes to go with all the spices when they do begin to produce fresh basil, oregano, cilantro and dill.

I also re-purposed some old furniture for this setting.  I'll talk about that blue bar stool in  the corner on the next House Doctor post, plus a few more pieces of useless furniture that I turned into whimsical accent pieces for my summer rooms.

I'll admit the space looks a little empty right now, but you have to imagine it with bushy green growth spilling out of each container in a few weeks.  That will look a lot more interesting and will add some greens into the room so the red, white and blue won't be so stark on the eyes.  Can't wait to see it all appear.   I expect this will come together very nicely in the end.

Have you planted any new herbs and spices at your house this year?  I would love to share any reader's tips and comments.   I'll add them to the final article that will just be a continuation of this post in  "The House Doctor" blog section whenever the crop comes in and begins to serve its purposes for our summer foods.

Okay, now I'm off to plan some spicy recipes for Pentecost!  

Catch you next time - happy gardening!