Tokyo, Procrastination
Published on May 5, 2008 By momijiki In Home Improvement

We moved into a house last September.  It's been great.  I love my house.

One of the benefits of this place is that it has a fairly large balcony.  Maybe 1.5mx3.5m.  I'm estimating.  It's enough room that we can fit a small table and two chairs and have a comfortable time having breakfast or coffee outdoors.  It's right off our kitchen/living room so it's great.  

Ever since we moved in we toyed with the idea of growing some plants in containers.  My cousins (both lawyers) who have a fabulous house just outside Victoria, BC have this amazing patio outside their kitchen.  She has several terra cotta urns filled with herbs. They're beautiful and she uses them a lot.  It was very inspiring.

Today, we actually got a huge terra cotta pot and filled up some plastic window-box size planters and started our garden.

In the herb pot, I put lavender, basil, parsley, rosemary (very small and I will be keeping an eagle eye on it), oregano and thyme.  In one box, we have some tomato plants with a chive plant and a lemon balm plant.  I read that these two plants near tomatoes will keep the pests away.  I hope so.  In the other box, we have two cucumber plants, some chili pepper plants.  In the last box, we have the oddballs--some more lemon balm, cilantro and rocket (looks like arugula to me).

I did lots of research on the internet, I wonder if it will do any good.  In some places, they say kitchen herb pots like rosemary, thyme and sage are good together.  Other places write that rosemary needs its own pot because it crowds out other plants.  I got a small creeping rosemary and I plan to prune it well.  Maybe that will keep it small.

We also asked the garden centre guy to help us pick out the right kind of soil.  I get really lost when I see lots of products that are almost similar and I don't know how to choose.  Anyway, the garden centre fella told us what would be good after I explained the plants I want and the planters I was going to use.

My husband and I had a great time playing in the dirt.  The plants look okay after a couple of hours, but we ended up transplanting them at night so it is pretty cool and moist now.  I'm looking forward to using the herbs and enjoying their scent.  It would be pretty cool if we got some veggies out of it, too.


Comments
on May 05, 2008

Yeah!

I love watching things grow.

Herbs are great because they have wonderful odors.  I don't have an herb garden because

1.  I don't use them enough to warrant all the work in my garden

2.  While I love the smell, I like to keep my sweet flower smells and more organic spicy smells separate.  I'm just weird that way.

Your garden sounds great.  You should take before pics and after pics and share them with us! 

on May 05, 2008

I'm more of a container gardener myself.  Just a few pots of flowers.  My classic is a strawberry pot  filled with succulents.  In Texas, containers dry out fast and succulents hang in there a little longer if you happen to forget to water them.  Good luck with your herb garden.  It sounds great. 

on May 05, 2008

My "yard" is about 1.5 meters squared.  It is full of this creeping ivy type stuff.  This is good because I like outside but not yardwork so much.  This container this is just the ticket maybe.

That strawberry jar sounds cool.  Post pictures!

on May 05, 2008
Sounds cool.

I wish I could grow things.
on May 05, 2008
DP
on May 05, 2008
I wish I could grow things.


You are growing things...three little things in the container of your home.  

on May 06, 2008
hree little things in the container of your home


LOL! Cool answer!LOL!

Momijiki, that's great! I have containers too, but with flowers and plants. I was thinking about doing some herbs because a friend of mine does and we were talking about it. I'm not sure if I'll have as green a thumb with herbs though! But container gardening is so much fun! Enjoy!
on May 06, 2008

foreverserenity


hree little things in the container of your homeLOL! Cool answer!LOL

 

That is a cool answer.  Very true also.

foreverserenity


I'm not sure if I'll have as green a thumb with herbs though! But container gardening is so much fun! Enjoy!

I read that basically herbs are tasty weeds so they should be easier to grow than a lot of plants.