Okay, guys, so right now I am so excited about something I have NEVER been excited about before. Those of you who have known me since way back when will be shocked and awed. Do you know what it is? Can you guess?
Gardening!
Okay, take a seat and calm yourself. I know, I know. It is very strange. But it does tend to go with this whole "Domestification of Lauren" process that has been happening over the last several years.
First, I got into cooking because I wanted to make really yummy muffins . . . then Cooking Light came along . . . then the famous Lauren's Quadruple Chocolate Rose Cake. Then the knitting thing took off.
And now, in part because I love yummy food, I am totally psyched about gardening. I am going to grow tomatoes, strawberries, basil, oregano, dill, rosemary, and (my current favorite because it already smells amazing) lavender.
All of this will be in pots on my most lovely back porch. I still need to get a strawberry pot, which is a very nifty contraption that has open pockets in the side of the pot, ideal for growing strawberries and herbs. The strawberries will go in the pockets and the herbs will go on top. The lavender and tomatoes already have their own pots and are at home on the back deck. Here is a nifty article on strawberry pots, if you haven't ever heard of them before (I didn't know what they were until recently): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/knowhow/pp/strawberries/index.html
One side note: I will always love my native Texas, and I am fairly certain we will move back there in a couple of years, but there is no way I could cultivate lavender there. In fact, every attempt at growing herbs in the past has ended in bitter failure for me because of too much heat, too much sun, or too many bugs. This is one of the reasons I think I will have lovely memories of New England--it is bug-free-land. Seriously, y'all, NO MOSQUITOES in Boston. Anyway, I digress. . . .
So I am very excited about growing my herbs and tomatoes. No tomato tastes as good as a fresh one. And I'm pumped about having a huge supply of basil and rosemary, in particular, which I would cook with much more of if buying them from the store were not so expensive. Usually I am not a huge fan of dill, but I bought some anyway because it is so good on cucumber sandwiches.
Anyhow, you can see how my interest in gardening really has stemmed from my interest in food. Flowers? Pish posh. You can't eat flowers. Lavender is as far as I'm going in terms of flowers right now, and technically, you can eat that, too. Maybe later, once I get into gardening for gardening's sake, I'll enjoy growing flowers. But for now, it's all about food.
What's next? Sewing? Actually, I'd love some new curtains . . .
1 comment:
congrats, my fellow green-thumber! i counted this weekend, and i have 20 tomatoes waiting to ripen. i picked the first this afternoon. i also have green beans growing, and we've been eating salads with my fresh greens! by the way, herbs love to grow in texas. they do well in the full sun, as long as you keep them watered very well. i've had the same oregano plant for a year, and my chives and basil are lovely. sage is looking pretty good too. i'll need to cook something with it...
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