Planting An Herb Garden

Over the past couple of weeks I have finally been able to get out in the yard and do some work. I have been weeding the flower beds a lot, trimming back crazy growing vines and have filled a couple of large yard-size garbage bags with the results of my work. While The Man is constantly working on big yard projects, I have been trying to teach Kiddo the world of weeding and gardening. Not easy, but at times she does enjoy it and feel a great sense of accomplishment. Other times, it's like pulling teeth and not very pleasant. Sounds like every other gardening family on the planet, right?!  I have been itching to plant an herb garden here in New Mexico but last summer while I was traveling a lot and here alone, it seemed ridiculously unwise to add one more thing to keep up with.

Then once we were settled here it still didn't make sense with a cast on my leg. So last Thursday when I had the day off I stopped in at Home Depot to grab a few things and decided to finally get some herb plants. I went with our three staples that we had so much success with in Los Angeles: Rosemary, Basil and Thyme. I also grabbed a tomato plant because my people like home grown tomatoes so much better than store bought tomatoes.

From the previous owners and what we brought with us, we seemed to have a lot of empty pots around the yard, so I started my herb garden project by looking for pots. I found these three terra cotta pots and thought they would look nice all together against the terra cotta colored wall of our patio. The wall looks like a the backdrop of an Italian terrace with small tendrils of ivy growing up it. This is the wall that gives us fits when we think about repainting the house because when we do we'll have to tear all the ivy down to paint. Such a bummer. But for now we'll enjoy it.

Once I had gathered the three pots I started questioning myself and thinking, I didn't like the two basic pots very much and began making plans to go buy new ones. Two were bigger than the third and I wanted symmetry, and more bell shaped pots to match the Rosemary pot. It just wasn't going to look "magazine worthy". Then my "live simply" self stopped my "wants" self. I didn't need new pots, these were perfectly fine and when the plants are healthy and growing no one is going to be looking at the pots anyway. The idea of the terra cotta was that it would blend in so well in that spot.

I felt a little disappointed in my "wants" self - wanting to spend money on things that really aren't very important. The pots I have work perfectly fine, look nice, are in fine condition and we already own them and they were not being used. I reminded myself that when I have a pretty table set out there it will all look magazine worthy enough, and that is such a silly standard -- but not an unreal anxiety in the world of picture perfect, photo shoot blogs and Instagram. There's a lot of pressure out there for everything to look too perfect.

So my humbled self lugged a big bag of potting soil to the patio and started planting. Being able to carry a big bag of soil across the yard and several five gallon buckets full of water to the patio was not something I took for granted. I could not do that at all the past six months. Even last week I probably couldn't have done that. It's great to be more stable and have two feet to depend on.

It's silly, but they rosemary pot was already full of dirt and I think it was the same soil we grew out Rosemary in when we lived in California. I was a little sentimental about that and kept it to plant our new Rosemary in. I filled the other two pots with soil, planted my plants and watered them well.

I still need a little more soil to finish planting the tomato plant, but it's in a big white pot and has a pretty, bright green tomato cage to grow in. Don't you love that they make such pretty tomato cages now!? It makes me so happy that I have a choice between bright yellow, orange, green or red. Lovely.

Planting our herb garden was one of those little projects that only took an hour that makes me feel more organized, settled and happy. It was also a good reminder in living frugally and using what you already have and that every effort we make to create a prettier environment pays off. Plus we will reap the benefits of fresh, organically grown herbs all summer and probably into the fall and winter months too. Love to be able to have what I need for favorite recipes right out the kitchen door. Here's to getting settled and making a life together - and enjoying some wonderful meals on our patio made with our home grown herbs.