The terrarium that Jamie made for us isn’t dead yet. I’m doing my best to take care of it and the other plants we’re growing, even though I’m not very good at it. Some people are just good with plants instinctively–Jamie is (one day I should do a post on all of the terrariums and plants she has lining all her windowsills) and Drew is (he took horticulture classes in school and can name almost any plant, I think), but not me. I still have to ask Drew to look at our herbs to see if they need watering. I want to start a garden eventually, but I started out easy by growing a bunch of herb plants on our front porch. I like being able to walk out to the front steps to get a handful of basil or mint or rosemary for whatever we’re eating (or drinking).
A successful garden is probably pretty far off into the future, so we’ve signed up with a CSA for the summer. So far I love it. There are a ton of CSAs around here and I did a lot of online searching, and one called Moore Farms seemed like the best option since you can order on a weekly basis, rather than having to sign up for an entire year, getting a bunch of things you don’t need. I also like the fact that they have a farm market you can order from, and that we can get fresh pastured eggs each week. It’s keeping me from doing something drastic like moving out to the middle of nowhere and starting our own farm.
In the last month or so I’ve started cooking a lot more too, and it’s been fun trying to come up with meals based on what we get in the CSA box. A lot of the time we get stuff we usually used to buy from the store: lettuce and tomatoes and oranges and onions. But sometimes we get something I’ve never seen before, like kohlrabi. It’s fun to search around online for new recipes for ingredients I wouldn’t have ever picked out myself.
11 Comments
Your herbs look great, mine never seem to thrive! But I wouldn’t worry about the terrarium, succulents are basically impossible to kill! I sometimes go months before watering mine and they are fine!
I love color tone of your pics
Can I ask how you make it?
:))
Lovely pictures. They call it bio packets or something like that where I live but it’s the best, right? I know exactly what you mean, about discovering new stuff and making a meal out of it! And some herbs in the garden are a lifesaver! :)
don’t feel bad about killing plants! we have herbs sitting on our windowsill and we’ve only had them for a month or so and I’ve managed to kill the thyme and mint, and now it’s looking like their replacements won’t last much longer. I can never figure out what they need, and it seems simple enough but I mess it up somehow. beautiful photos, the terrarium jamie made is super nice!
I am totally obsessed with making a terrarium but it is quite hard to find succulents and nice little cacti in London. I am also struggling to find the perfectly shaped receptacle for the plants. Plus I am pretty sure I would make an awful job of it. Yours is splendid and I like what I am seeing of the table it sits on :)
x
ugh i am exactly the same way with plants. totally hopeless. i want to create a jungle in my apartment because there is little greenery in nyc, but i always manage to kill every plant i own, including cacti which dont event need to be watered that frequently!
Love the square planters on the front porch! Looks like the herbs
are doing well and the CSA box looks like a wonderful idea!
How interesting! I’ve never heard of a CSA before, but everything you got looks absolutely delicious – especially those eggs!
Container gardens are definitely a good way to ease into it! A lot of people say they’re fussier than normal gardens, but to me it’s extremely intimidating to actually PLANT things in the GROUND. I like that I still have control over my garden to an extent (I can move them all into the screened porch if a tropical storm comes through, for instance) but it’s still just as garden-y as anything else. Herbs are awesome to start out with, and if you like tomatoes they’re pretty simple too (Jeremy doesn’t like them but I’m growing three different kinds this year! I don’t know what I’ll do with the extras..) and so are zucchini and cucumbers.
Anyway blah blah, I tend to go on forever about gardening!
Those herbs sitting on your steps look so lovely. May I ask where you found those terrific square-shaped planters?
Love the interest in plants and food! I love fashion and photography, and have been following your blog for years, and I work on an organic farm. Love the words colliding.
I just posted on starting a succulent garden :http://la-cabrita.tumblr.com/post/25264473009/growing-your-green-thumb-a-succulent-recipe