{"id":22750,"date":"2014-05-27T18:24:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T23:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=22750"},"modified":"2014-05-27T18:24:44","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T23:24:44","slug":"the-basic-herb-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=22750","title":{"rendered":"The Basic Herb Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone.\u00a0 Before I get into the details of today’s post, Jordan asked me to explain why she has been MIA lately.\u00a0 After returning from their two-week trip to Africa<\/a>, she has been on the road with work.\u00a0 She has only been home for three days since then, and that time has been devoted to laundry, groceries, mail, cleaning, etc.\u00a0 You get the picture.\u00a0 She promises both you and me that she’ll be back to posting soon.<\/h3>\n

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\"Herb<\/p>\n

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I am so excited about today’s post.\u00a0 I have had an herb garden almost every year that we have been married, and that’s a lot of years.\u00a0 Sometimes I had as many as 30 different herbs in my garden, but since we down-sized to our townhouse and its courtyard<\/a>, I now stick to the basics that I use for my own day to day cooking.<\/h3>\n

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\"Herb<\/p>\n

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The nice things about herbs is that they don’t require a lot of space or attention.\u00a0 I lined this 5 x 5 space in our courtyard with boxwoods and then filled in the interior with herbs.\u00a0 Oh, and I even had room for two tomato plants that will climb up the trellis.\u00a0 And in a few weeks, I intend to plant some pumpkin seeds in there just as an experiment.<\/h3>\n

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\"Basil<\/h3>\n

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I planned my herb selections on what I actually use for cooking.\u00a0 You’ll find two kinds of basil in my garden.\u00a0 Both are great for pesto, caprese salads, and tomato sandwiches.\u00a0 I harvest enough basil to freeze several pints of pesto.\u00a0 I love using it on pasta in the winter when the basil plants have long been gone.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\"Lovage<\/p>\n

This herb is lovage, and it tastes just like celery. \u00a0It is good in salads like chicken, tuna, potato or pasta salad. \u00a0It’s also good to add \u00a0to your bath water when you want a good soak.<\/h3>\n

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\"Rosemary<\/h3>\n

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This little sprig of a plant is rosemary.\u00a0 It will grow to almost shrub size this summer.\u00a0 (Sorry for the blurry photo).\u00a0 If the winter is mild enough, it will not die off.\u00a0 My last rosemary plant lived through two winters, but unfortunately, it couldn’t handle last winter.<\/h3>\n

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\"Thyme<\/h3>\n

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Ditto for the thyme.\u00a0 Like the rosemary, it can live through a normal winter, but not last winter.\u00a0 There are several varieties of thyme, but I just went with a basic.\u00a0 I love it on any chicken dish.<\/h3>\n

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\"Parsley<\/h3>\n

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I use parsley more as a garnish than as flavor.\u00a0 I bought curly-leafed parsley but will also purchase some flat-leaf parsley which is what most chefs recommend.\u00a0 The colors of these herbs are much greener than they are showing in the photos.\u00a0 Sorry about that.<\/h3>\n

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\"Garden<\/h3>\n

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This garden ornament, which I purchased a few years ago at the Brimfield, MA Antique Sale with my friend Beth rests above the chives.\u00a0 Chives are very hardy, and they did live through the winter.<\/h3>\n

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\"McClintockAlthough we might just have a courtyard, Mr. Right selected for us the same outdoor spigot that is used on horse farms.\u00a0 It is very classic in design and will never freeze.\u00a0 If a hose is attached to it during the winter, the hose won’t freeze either.<\/h3>\n

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Remember when using fresh herbs, you add them to your dish at the last minute so the flavor will be enhanced. \u00a0When cooking with dried herbs, you add them early in the cooking so the flavors will come out in the process. \u00a0If you haven’t planted any herbs before, it’s time to give it a try. \u00a0There are many gardening books out there on how to do it.<\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone.\u00a0 Before I get into the details of today’s post, Jordan asked me to explain why she has been MIA lately.\u00a0 After returning from their two-week trip to Africa, she has been on the road with work.\u00a0 She has only been home for three days since then, and that time has been devoted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[18,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22750"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22765,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22750\/revisions\/22765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}