Herb Garden

Vegetables provide the sustenance, but herbs provide the zest. This year, I'm going all-out on zestiness. I've got herbs located in about a half-a-dozen different locations. To the left here is my little herb garden in front of the greenhouse. The bushy plant in front is chamomile. It's flowers can be used to make tea. Behind it are basil and cilantro. Basil and cilantro are herb all-stars. I use basil in every pasta dish I make, and I use it in large quantities. Likewise, I use cilantro in every Mexican dish I make, and of course salsa. Italian and Mexican dishes lend themselves well to my style of eating. I care about three things when I prepare a meal. It has to be relatively simple. It has to be healthy, and it has to be tasty. Mexican and Italian dishes work for me, because they use recognizable ingredients. I can usually leave meat out of them, and most importantly, I can load them up with vegetables. Next to the greenhouse, in a pot I have a little bit of mint. My mint didn't germinate too well, so I should probably get some more seeds started pretty soon. Mint is another of my favorite herbs. It will allow me to impress my Sanilac County friends with my Mojito making skills. In addition to those, I planted some chives, dill (I also have some dill next to my cukes), marjoram, and thyme around a bird bath, just south of the basement wall. I would've liked to have some rosemary as well, but it didn't germinate. I don't use those herbs as much, but I do use them occasionally, and just having the opportunity to smell them once in a while makes the minimal amount of effort I've put towards planting them all worthwhile.

Just in case I didn't plant enough basil and cilantro in front of the greenhouse, I planted a few rows of it in the garden. I planted a couple rose of basil in front of the tomatoes, a row of cilantro in front of the peppers, and a few parsley plants (they didn't germinate real well) alongside the peppers.

I almost forgot to mention, almost a third of our back lawn is oregano. Mom planted it one year, and it became invasive. For the most part, we just mow it down, like we would do to grass, but we've let one little section of it grow. I hope my basil and cilantro shares its ambition.