How Does Your Garden Grow?

While we don't have a patio or yard, I like the idea of having plants, but knew they had to be small otherwise they would overwhelm our apartment and take up valuable window space. On one windowsill, we have D.'s bonsai and my bamboo, but I wanted more and thought about how great it would be to have fresh herbs, so I decided to dedicate the kitchen windowsill to that. Today, D. and I went to a nursery where my mother, the gardening expert, met us to help us pick the appropriate seeds, pots, etc. We went back to my parents' to use their soil, fertilizer, and hose, and I learned all about seed planting (never thought I'd say that...)


My mother got the first batch of basil!



We decided to get some extra pot-bottoms, so on our way home stopped by the original nursery again. The owner was obnoxious about using our credit card for such a small purchase (though I had spent all my cash at her nursery a few hours before), so we left. We stopped at another nursery on our way home, where they had these beautiful hidden grounds, old Greek men sitting around the plants smoking, and a ton of really charming garden decorations. I asked if one vintage-y tin watering can - decorated with twine - was for sale or for decoration, and one young man said, "decoration, but you can have it for a dollar - I don't think it works" (though it does, just awkwardly). When he was ringing me up - with no problem using a credit card - he said "you can just take the can for free." He then undercharged us for the pot bottoms, and we walked to our car. A minute later, he ran outside with a small painted vintage terra cotta watering can and said "this one works a lot better - you can just have it for a dollar." I handed him $1.06 (the exact amount of cash I had left - figuring for tax), and he washed it out in the fountain for us. He was maybe the nicest man I had ever met.

I digress...

So I set up my little garden behind my sink, with my two lovely watering cans, and I'll hope that my parsley, rosemary, and (not sage or thyme) spearmint actually grows and my basil keeps going.