Sorry about the lack of posts this week. I haven’t been cooking much and have been either eating out at places not exactly worth writing home about or the cans of soup we bought for Hurricane Irene prep. Anyway, I can talk about our tiny herb garden a bit. Since we live in a condo, we don’t have any ground or yard to plant anything in, but our neighbors don’t seem to mind that we’ve created this potted herb garden and placed it on our shared front porch area. I think my wife got the idea for the set-up from a Martha Stewart magazine. Even though you can see three pots, there’s actually five involved. You get a big one and then one that’s about half the size, flip the smaller one upside down and put it inside the big pot, then fill around with dirt, soil or what have you. This gives your next visible pot (the same size as the buried one) a flat spot to rest on without wobbling. Plant your herbs in the dirt as you go and you’re good! It’s basically a planting pot pyramid.

My wife handled all the herb acquisition. I think she got them either from her mom or a store like Home Depot or Lowes (that’s where we got them last year). She planted this year’s crop with her parents while I was doing something else one weekend soon after the baby was born. We’ve got basil, dill, Thai basil, Italian parsley, thyme, tarragon and mint growing. I’ve used everything a number of times in cooking, either as a recipe calls for or while riffing on something like a hamburger recipe. It’s just about time to use up what we’ve got or pick what’s left and dry it for the winter. I’ll probably grab all or most of that basil and make a bunch of pesto and maybe a few rounds of mojitos with the mint. We also have a separate pot with catnip that you can’t see, but our kitty Milo is head over heels for the stuff.

This is a good way to have fresh herbs during the warm months. I’ve also seen those inside ones you can buy, but haven’t really experienced them. Have you guys? Yet another reason I’m excited about eventually getting a house (in addition to having a bigger shower, a bigger kitchen and even the smallest office possible) is have a little garden out back to grow some veggies and herbs. That takes the whole buying local thing to a whole different level!