Three weeks ago, I wrote about my new attempt at indoor herb gardening. I planted parsley, oregano, chives and mint. I promised to post progress reports and promptly crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t kill the poor plants before I actually had something to report. As you may recall in my previous post, I mentioned that I was not born with green thumbs, so even a potted herb plant is a daunting experience for me.
However, three weeks later, I am happy to report that all of my plants are still alive! One of them – the parsley – is actually thriving, much to my delight and astonishment. The first parsley sprouts began to appear after a week or so. After ten days, they looked like this:
Today, they look like this:
I must be doing something right. Perhaps a repotting will soon be necessary.
The oregano is also doing well. I honestly didn’t expect it to grow at all, as I thought it required more sunlight than is available in my apartment. Yet sprout it did and it is still growing. New sprouts are appearing almost daily:
The mint and chives have taken longer to show themselves. I don’t know if this is normal for these particular herbs, or if I was doing something wrong. But patience has its rewards, and I now have three of these tiny mint plants:
As for the chives, I was beginning to wonder if they would ever grow. Some other plant, which is not a chive and looks suspiciously mint-like, started to grow instead and I thought perhaps I got my pots mixed up. I now believe the rebel mint plant is merely the result of a stray seed during the potting process, for this morning I noticed this small, green chive sprout poking through the soil (It’s hard to see in the middle of the photo, but believe me, it’s there.):
Now that the plants are growing and appear healthy, a new challenge presents itself. With summer vacation fast approaching, I need to find a way to keep my plants adequately watered during our two-week absence. I have read about DIY solutions that work for a few days, but nothing that would appear to work over longer periods of time. Suggestions welcome!
My Expat Kitchen 