My Herb Garden Adventure

One of my goals for my "spring break" a.k.a. "spring opportunity" was to create an herb garden. I'm not sure if this past week counted as spring break (no UCSB classes) or if this coming week is spring break (spring break at the school site I work at), but anyways, I achieved this task today. In the past I have had little success with growing my herbs. For the first time, I am living in a place where I have easy access to a small patio. Herb growing has not been easy indoors. I wanted to buy some herbs and plant them in bigger pots so they could be happy and flourish, and I would have delectable, fresh herbs at hand for all of the fresh food cooking I do.

So here is a picture of the starting materials for my herb garden:
1. Thai Basil, Regular Basil, Mint, and Cilantro that I bought from Trader Joe's and Home Depot
2. Rosemary, Thyme, Curled Parsley, and some green onions that my grandma gave me
3. A bag of "organic soil"
4. Three 14" pots, a small shovel, and garden gloves






So here is what my garden looked like after some digging, re-potting, and planting:
Yay, success!

Or so I thought...











So after I was doing some researching about herb gardens online, I learned that mint should not be planted in pots with any other plants, because it is very invasive and it will take over any plant it is planted with. So I decided to go back to Home Depot to buy one more pot and a little more soil.

When I put another bag of the "organic soil" in my cart, this is what I saw on the back of the bag:
Shoot! I bought "gardening" soil, and I was supposed to buy "potting" soil. I looked up on my iPhone if this is a big deal, because I didn't want to have to re-plant all my prettily planted plants. But everyone said that it is a bad idea to use gardening soil in pots. It has something to do with the amount of oxygen and water the soil retains.












SO I loaded this in my cart (along with some flat-leafed parsley that looked good and another pot):

It doesn't state that this soil is "organic," but as long as I don't use pesticides, chemicals, etc., I'll be happy with my natural garden.










So after another round of re-potting, planting, and switching out soil, here is the (current) final product:
Left: Cilantro
Middle: Thai Basil and Thyme
Right: Peppermint











Left: Basil
Left Middle: Green Onions, Curled Parsley, Rosemary
Right Middle: Flat-leafed Parsley (needs to be potted in another pot)
Right: I think it's another type of thyme, but I'm not sure... that one's from my grandma :-)







So yay, I have an herb garden! However, I'm a little worried about the sun exposure. My patio does not face the best direction for sun, so hopefully all my plants don't die. That would be sad. Hope for the best! I can't wait to use all my fresh herbs in yummy meals.