A Pastiche of a Post

As planned, I had a little herb discussion with my chiropractor today while she was working the kinks out of my body. Most of her experience with growing herbs has been in an outdoor setting, but she still had some useful pieces of advice. She strongly advised to follow the recommendations of regular fertilization. This is particularly important for plants grown in containers because the soil is not subjected to the variability and diversity of soil exposed to the natural elements. Hence, it can be very easy for container plants to become malnourished. Since organic food has been a mainstay of my diet going on 15+ years now (thanks to a health-conscious mother and the influence of my progressive older brother), I'm definitely opting with organic fertilizer. My chiropractor also cautioned to be mindful of what is in any soil that I buy: some mixtures come with fertilizer already in them, and it's usually not organic, unless specified.

Thinking ahead, it will be nice to be able to casually discuss my progress with my chiropractor as I become more deeply involved in the project (i.e. actually growing stuff). She has always been very easy to talk to and willingly shares any insight or experience that she has on a particular topic.

In other news, I am totally loving The Big Book of Herbs. I may have to save up to buy it at some point. As my younger brother rightly noted, it is a book that an herbalist should have in their personal reference collection. I will be sad when I have to part with it when I return it to the library.

To distract me from this impending, painful good-bye, I'm starting to think about containers I want to use to plant the herbs in. Continuing with the parsimonious approach to the project, I'm going to scrounge for free - dirt cheap containers. This may compromise the aesthetics of the project, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made. For starters, I've been letting an old, broken blender hang around the apartment well beyond its unfortunate demise (some of you are familiar with the blender I speak of). My brother started taking it apart recently, and I think the base--when turned upside-down--could serve as one of the containers. The size seems right, and it already has a drainage hole in it. I knew a broken blender would come in handy somehow! ;)

  

There is quite a bit of circuitry that needs to be removed, but I'm hoping that between my brother and me, we'll be able to gut it. If that doesn't work, empty coffee cans will be an easier option. One is already hiding out somewhere in the pantry, and over the next couple of months, I'm sure I'll be able to amass a few more. And now that I think of it, a pleasing appearance can still be accomplished, despite the otherwise unsightly nature of these reused containers: painting the coffee cans (and blender) would be an added fun, artistic part of the project.