My Own Little Herb Garden

Photo by Chris Duffy

I like cooking and I use lots herbs and spices when I do, so it seemed like a good idea for me to have a go at growing some of the herbs myself.  If all goes well, I may expand my little garden next season, but for now I just have curled leaf parsley, cilantro, basil and dill growing in this large planter on my patio.  I've grown parsley before and it's done very well for me and now I'm hoping that the cilantro does ever bit as good, because I use five times as much of it as I do parsley.  

 It will be so nice to be able to go out onto the patio and pick fresh cilantro to throw in my salads.  I've taken to putting it in a lot more than just my salads though, like soups, stews, and roasts.  Why, I've even diced it up and put it in my home made noodles.  Makes the noodles a lot more interesting AND tasty. 

The dill gets used in anything made with potatoes . . . like potato soup, potato salad, scalloped or mashed potatoes.   I've always used dried dill weed, but it will be interesting to see how much of a difference it makes using fresh dill.  This is going to be fun. 

Spring Has Arrived!!

Photo by Chris Duffy

We went to our local nursery and brought home some colorful flowers to plant in the planter boxes on our deck.  I think the "Purple Lady" from up the street is rubbing off on me because 3/4 of the flowers we brought home were in the purple family.  I do like it though.  These were called Parfait Sachet.

Photo by Chris Duffy

I even found some purple daisies.  I just love purple and green together; it looks so vibrant and majestic.  I wanted to get a dozen pots of these flowers, but at $6 a pot I opted for only five.  I hope they behave like Cannas and get thicker and spread out and invade more space each year.  I'd love for the whole corner flower bed to be covered in these pretty purple blooms.