Hi Friends!

We are one week into April, and OH MY GOODNESS is it cold outside today! The temperature is a whopping 35 degrees out there right now. You would never know this by stepping outside, but it is gardening season!! I love growing my very own farmer’s market right in my back yard, and I have a Spring schedule all planned out for when to plant each veggie and herb. This weekend I am supposed to be planting my lettuce, spinach, kale and beets.

But tonight…the low is supposed to be 27 degrees and we’re under a freeze warning!! Can you believe it?! We are having February weather on my planting day. That means I’m going to have to hold off on planting until probably Wednesday, when it has a chance to warm up and dry out, because it’s been ark-building weather out there for a month!

In happier news, I have sprouts! I’m still waiting and hoping for my carrots to spring up (it’s been almost a month so I’m afraid our psychotic weather has killed them before they started), but I have tiny little herb sprouts in my kitchen window! I have a coffee mug problem…I have purchased way too many of them over the years and recently broke down and did a cabinet cleanout. So, since I have a window sill right above my kitchen sink, I decided to repurpose a few of them to start an indoor herb garden!

I planted thyme, oregano and basil (which I may have to rethink once it starts getting tall), and I transplanted some of last year’s chives, which somehow survived a brutally cold winter outside in a flower pot. I made some labels with chalk markers and gel pens (I’ve recently taken up lettering as a hobby, but I’m definitely an amateur!) to stick to the mugs, so all that’s left now is to keep them watered and watch them grow:

My next project for my herbs is to make an herb drying rack, and a spice rack to place the dried herbs in. The sides of my cabinets next to my kitchen sink are a blank white canvas just asking for a purpose. So I’m going to DIY a hanging herb drying rack on one side, and a hanging spice rack on the other. I always buy the organic spices from Aldi in glass jars, so I’m starting to save the empty jars (as quickly as I go through ground cumin, that shouldn’t take too long!) and will just need to fabricate a rack to display them.

I’m thinking of something like this (thank you, Pinterest) for the drying rack:

And something like this for the spice rack:

If you’ve done something like this or have any awesome DIY herb storage ideas, please feel free to share! The goal is to have an herb station centered around my kitchen window. I’m also hoping to find a table or cart to use as a rolling kitchen island to expand my kitchen workspace…but that’s a DIY project for another day!

Next weekend I will be starting my container gardening, come rain or shine. The good thing about planting in containers is that I don’t have to worry about wet soil! My garden soil and peat moss are keeping dry in my carport, so they’re just waiting for the time to be right — which will hopefully be next weekend. The good news is, even if it’s raining I can just plant them in my carport and then move them to their permanent location when there’s a break in the weather.

Stay tuned for a container gardening update, where I will share how-to’s and photos of how I plant my potatoes and green beans using plastic storage totes. Talk to you soon!

Love,
Loren