Herbs

Where I live at, we are under a winter storm warning for today. We are suppose to receive anywhere from 6-12 inches of the fluffy white stuff during the next 12 hours. Which is why today is the perfect day to plant my herbs.

My oldest son gave me an organic herb kit as a Christmas present this past year. I don't normally “do” gardening kits, but thought since I had it, I might as well use it. The kit came with 12 different herbs, something that they called pellets but actually they are just small amounts of potting soil wrapped up in netting and dehydrated which causes for shrinkage. A “green house” (a cake tray with a lid from the grocery store would serve the same purpose, but the “green house” had dividers to keep the pellets in place which was nice.) Last, but not least, a handy-dandy, laminated instruction sheet on how to plant herbs. It is a very nice instruction sheet and one which I will most likely use again in years to come.

The instruction sheet said to soak the seeds, but I skipped over that part. I consulted a herbologist that said that she never soaks her herb seeds, but there are those that swear by soaking seeds before planting. I opted not to do so. I will see if that was a good thing for me to have done.

I then put the pellets onto the tray and covered the pellets with 2 quarts of tap water.

Once the pellets had fully expanded, I poured off the excess water.

I pulled back the netting and fluffed up the dirt.

I then planted 2 to 3 seeds onto of each pellet and labeled each pellet so I could remember what I planted where. I color coded the markers (actually they are just “post it” tabs that I wrote on) so that each different herb had a different color.

I then put that same color on its corresponding seed package.

I then recorded what color code was used for which herb, date of planting, and sign of the moon in my gardening journal .  

I placed the dome onto the tray and put it in our library out of direct sunlight. It will remain there until the herbs have sprouted. Then they will be placed in a southern window.

Remember when planting your garden this spring to always plant more than what you need. That way you can share with others that are not able to have a garden, such as the elderly or the truly disabled. Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)