After 3 years of procrastinating, I finally decided to jump on the ‘grow your own herb garden’ bandwagon.
I’m sure most of you are familiar with that feeling of wastefulness every time you buy a coriander plant from Coles for a specific recipe, only for it to shrivel up and die by the next time you need it? This happens to me ALL THE TIME. As I was doing my shopping last week I grabbed the ready-to-plant mint, basil, parsley and of course, my beloved coriander.
It was always going to be a risky venture seeing as I’ve never managed to keep any plant alive for more than a week – including so-called lucky bamboo, which needs watering as often as I need a headache – but it was time to at least try. Plus, I had a few empty pots from some previous unfortunate plants to make use of.
The next stop was finding some soil for planting. Normally, I would just go with the cheapest for this sort of thing but I really wanted to give my little plants the best chance of life. This time I splashed out and bought the good stuff especially for herb gardens. I was getting quite excited by now, imagining how big they’d get and all the lovely dinners I’d make. Despite my hatred for cooking, I was determined these herbs would change that and my life!
I got home and got straight into it, assigning herbs to pots by order of favouritism. I had done some research and found they apparently liked a lot of sun and water. My aim was to water them every second day to start with and if the soil felt too dry; every day. I noticed within a few hours that the coriander isn’t looking to good but figured I can’t possible have killed it yet…. Have I?
I also took into account the possums that take over our backyard every night. Over the next couple of days, I left them out in the sun during the day and moved them into the secure area under the house at night. It’s only day two and my partner mentions that they appear to be dying. I insist they are just adjusting and will be fine – how dare he say that! By the next morning however I’ve given up on the coriander. It must have been on the way out when I got it.
Night three – or black Thursday as I call it – the possums found a way in and butchered my poor parsley and basil, leaving me with just the mint which if I’m honest is my least favourite too. After a few days of grieving during which the mint is getting a little neglected and not looking so good now either; my partner surprises me with some new plants (and chicken wire) which I tell myself must be better quality than the Coles ones and enthusiastically plant them.
I’m now two days in with the parsley and basil going strong, and the possums going hungry. It seems the coriander again has not survived the planting process. The mint is slowly but very surely dying from the roots up, which I don’t feel too disappointed about. Since I haven’t even used any of them yet, I’m wondering what’s really so wrong with buying them on a needs basis from Coles…
