homegrown

Until now, the only food I have harvested for myself was a basil plant I had in college. Of course, I couldn’t use it after a while, because my cats began to rub themselves all over it, leaving their hair stuck to the leaves. Would you like some hairball with that spaghetti? No thanks. So it sat there in my apartment collecting hair (and dust), while bewitching my fingers with a delectable smell each time I touched it. I held onto that plant for a few years, watching it wither and wilt, and then blaze back into life several times over. That plant seemed to withstand anything. It even survived several cross-country moves, keeping me company in the passenger seat of my shoddy ’95 Taurus, until its roots finally choked itself to death somewhere along I-80.

I’ve grown other herbs over the years since then, but never for eating, because of those blasted cats. I just like the smell of them. This year though, the cat hair will not win… because I’m done with indoor gardening (well, except for my houseplants and cacti). I’m taking it outside. And my dinner plate will be full of my own hair-free growings this summer. Strawberries, cherry tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, rosemary, lemon thyme, oregano, pineapple sage, basil (sweet and mexican cinnamon) and parsley for pesto, echinacea and mint for tea, catnip for the cats, and aloe vera for that desert sun. But wait, that’s just from my patio garden. Later this week, I am planting my other garden, up in the greenhouse at work. There I will be growing spinach, green zebra and ananes noire tomatoes, grape tomatoes, red bell peppers (and more yellow ones), broccoli, and lettuce. My belly can’t wait. Everyone is invited to dinner at my house.