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A Garden For Lazy People

May 22, 2013   22 Comments

Get our your hoes and your gardening gloves and start planting!

Herb Garden

Or if you are me, watch all the gardeners surrounding you go to plant sales, discuss the latest in eco-groovy irrigation, and till their soil.

Me? I am sitting this year out. Honestly, I would love to plant a garden that would give me tons of tomatoes, zucchini, basil and kale, but I hate weeding in the hot sun. Also, I found that I don’t like picking vegetables much either.

Last year, we tried a farm share and part of the deal was that we go out to the field and pick our vegetables. As I crouched in the hot sun (as my children complained), I dreamt of the cold interior of a supermarket produce section. Once you pick your own green beans, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries you treat your food with much more respect. Somebody worked HARD to get that food to you.

BUT, I am still going to have a wee garden for my windowsill. All you need is about $8-$12 and you can have fresh herbs all summer long. My favorites are basil, cilantro, and parsley. I clip off some of the plant when I want to add it to a dish and it keeps growing! Best of all, I don’t have to weed or go outside to get my product and I keep them above my sink for quick watering.

You can buy these plants at any Home Depot or garden store. I have seen a cute window sill box at Home Depot for super lazy people (like myself).

What do I do with my herbs?

  • Layer leaves of basil on my tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil.
  • Add cilantro to my salsa (tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, lime juice, salt)
  • Use parsley as a garnish for anything (eggs, fish, tomatoes, etc.)

Fresh herbs are a zero calorie way to add lots of flavor to your food.

Do you have a garden? How do you use fresh herbs?

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First 20 Comments: ( See all 22 )

This has been my Mother's Day gift that I have requested for the last few years and I LOVE it. This year I requested: basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, and MINT!!!! Mint is great in many drinks including water with lemon, limes, orange slices, and mint!

My Mom used to grow mint in our backyard when I was a kid. It smelled really good,but mint spreads so easily and can take over a small patch of ground fast. Still it's awesome in iced tea...and I have fond memories of smelling mint growing under my bedroom window.

I kept one planter with basil & dill last year and used them both all up. This year I'm adding mint. I plant flowers around the yard but I cannot get myself to plant a garden so this works.

They come ready made? I'm in. Thank you for being so honest about this. I love the THOUGHT of gardening but really don't enjoy it at all. The sun, the bugs, the backaches. I'm off to Home Depot this weekend!

I keep an herb garden outside in my flower beds. But don't want to disappoint the farmer market folks, so try not to plant veggies! As you can tell I don't enjoy all the work gardening requires! Glad to see I'm not alone!

My lazy garden has sage, thyme, chives, basil, tarragon and rosemary. It spurs all kinds of creative cooking.

Another lazy farming trick, they're called something like city garden boxes and you get them online or in the gardening department of large hardware or department stores. Mine are about 4x4 (feet) and I have one for herbs and one for tomatoes. I'm putting it on my deck, they're made from plastic and come with an irrigation system so you can't over-water. I told the woman I bought my herbs from that I was a lazy gardener, she said-no you're an urban gardener. I like that!

I love gardening but never have enough room. Last year we got a Tower Garden. It's vertical aeroponic garden system. Our produce grew so fast and tasted better than the stuff in the found. The kids love picking their salad right off of it. That is when they really started eating salad!

I am working on a small garden with herbs and vegetables. Where I live, heat isn't a problem. It's a raised bed garden so weeding shouldn't be as big as a deal. But, I'm excited for the garden. I can't wait to get fresh veggies and herbs!

I live in a city, where gardening is difficult, but my apartment gets a fair amount of sun. That makes it easy to keep herbs growing right on my windowsill. I buy organic basil from the grocery store and put it right in my fair trade herb planter from tenthousandvillages.com. (I don't work for the store, but I love their products.)

Fresh herbs are one of the things I enjoy most about summer. I have small herb plot in the sunny area of my backyard, and chive and sage will 'winter over' and be there in the spring. Keep clipping the chive and it's blossoms to use in salads. Severely cut the sage back in the spring and you'll have it for years. Basil is such a treat with tomatoes; just don't let it wilt from lack of water. Keep pinching it back while you use it all summer and you'll have more than you need from about 4 plants. Rosemary is wonderful with chicken -- slide long stalks under the skin before roasting. But rosemary won't survive the winter in N.E. so pot it up as a houseplant in the fall. Mint does make a wonderful, refreshing drink. I gather a handful of leaves, crush them in a tall container, add a cup of boiling water, 2 tsp. of sugar, and let it steep a couple of hours. Fill with cold water and refrigerate for a wonderful, not-too-sweet drink. But like Arlene wrote, mint can spread quickly, so plant it in it's own area. It will also come back year after year. When my son was in pre-school, I received a dixie cup with some mint for mother's day -- 31 years ago, and the stuff is here to stay!

Hey Snack Girl, I love that you tried a farm share last year! I'm a produce grower, and our farm runs a share program that doesn't require any working hours from its members. (Though most of them ask to do a few hours of volunteering for our food bank harvests through the season.)

Maybe there's a farm in your area that runs shares the same way, and you could still get that fresh-picked just-for-you yummy produce. One way to find them is on localharvest.org in the CSA section. That's one of the places I have my farm listed. For your readers: CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.

There are some great youtube videos on how to prune/harvest basil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLblD5vM_P4

I absolutely love the idea,'garden for lazy people.' Part of my childhood was spent on a farm and I think I was burned out picking weeds and caring for the HUGE garden. The only thing I grow now is tomatoes on the deck but this is a great idea! I think I can manage adding some spices to my 'deck garden.'

I have a garden with tomatoes, squash lots of herbs, melons, etc etc, but talk about picking weeds in the heat we will have triple digit heat for close to two months lol sometimes my garden makes it sometimes not. but we try

I have been gardening the last 10 years or so, with pretty good success. Never was the best at keeping the weeds out, but other than that I have enjoyed it till the last two years.

Since I have moved in with my now wife at her place, gardening has changed. Me and my wife love tomatoes, and I have always enjoyed growing them. Once I moved here, I can not keep the squirrels out of the tomatoes. I have tried everything. Then also the last 2 years we have had heavy drought.

I basically have given up gardening, but an herb garden in the window is a good solution. Now I won't have to fight nature as hard.

My back yard is all shade so I usually do a container of herbs and put on my front porch. Wish I had the sun for a vegetable garden. Luckily there is a farm near by that does organic vegetables in late July/August.

You just reminded me that I want to do an herb garden this year! Thank you.

Try this with mint. Cut up cantaloupe, honeydew, and kiwi. Make a dressing with lime juice, chopped mint and sugar (or sweetner). Toss the melon mixture and the lime dressing. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving for best flavor absorption. Yum!!

I would like to know if there are receipes

Out there just for one. Different ideas for all meals

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