Nothing Rhymes with Lydia…

I found a good comprehensive guide to growing herbs organically at Planet Natural. Their recommended first step is to find a good location for your herb garden – either outdoors or indoors. I’m going the indoor route. Herbs need at least 6 hours of sunlight a day, and I have the perfect spot in my kitchen. I have a Southeast facing window that gets great morning light. Since it’s on the corner of the house, it also gets good afternoon light. I think my herbs will be nice and happy, there!

I bought this great wire shelving unit from a big box home store on clearance. It fits the space nicely and lends itself to future growth. (Ignore the gross windows whose moisture membranes have been corrupted!)

While I was at the big box store, I sought out a proper growing medium for my plants. Who knew it was so difficult to find some organic potting soil? After about twenty minutes of searching and asking three staff members, one guy was finally able to help me find this:

I was a little leery of the Miracle Gro name, but it was all that was available. Here’s hoping for the best.

Next, I sought out some seed starting containers and ended up finding this great tutorial on making your own seed pots from newspaper. I found some discarded advertising piece from my local newspaper and made three pots. These are non-glossy but do have colored ink – I think they are fine.

I filled the pots with the growing medium and planted my seeds. Both the Cilantro and Basil packets called for sowing the seeds about 1/4” into the soil. Rosemary needs light to germinate, so the seeds were placed right on the top of the soil. I tamped them down, lightly, with my fingers to ensure good soil contact.

I moistened each of the pots with some water. Moist but not sopping, per everything I’ve read! I set the basil and cilantro pots on the plant stand to work their magic.

Rosemary has naturally low germination rates. Seeds need to be kept at a low temperature, 55-60 degrees until germination. I knew this would be difficult to maintain in August in the South – even in the basement. So, I followed the seed packet directions for alternative seed starting. It suggests to moisten the pot, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 week. Then, it suggests to move the pot to a place where it will be 70-75 degrees during the day until germination. This should be accomplished in my window sill since we have the air conditioner set to about that.

I’ll be hovering over my little baby seedlings all week long and will let you know as soon as I see any progress!