We’ve all heard the old saw about cultivating our own garden. It’s not hooey. I’ve had a small garden at almost every location I’ve lived since I came off the road. Sometimes it’s only been a window box, and at others, it’s been a big, fully configured garden. Currently, it features a variety of large, 30-inch-tall raised beds, planter bags, and assorted items filled with plants. The other day, my wife caught me eying the drive, it is the only sunny, uncultivated area.
No, we are not going to get rid of the car so Lou can have four more raised beds (but it is tempting!). But my point here is that if a bit of agriculture will improve your life, you should try it even if it’s a perfectly manageable plantation of one window box with some herbs.
A small herb garden is the ideal choice if you have limited space available. For the small space allotment, it could make the optimal gain for your culinary and aesthetic enjoyment.
For a friend who loves the garden but whose lifestyle precludes a garden, I created a small treat. I used one of those small landscape cloth planters to create a tiny herb garden. It can sit on her porch or steps, require minimal care, but offer the advantages of a garden. It has sage, parsley, rosmary, and Thyme. All herbs she enjoys for cooking.
I think of gardening as being an activity that improves our lives, and in its own simple way, makes us more than passive passengers on our journey through life. And the nice thing about it is that we do not have to have broad acreage to participate.
What do I do in winter? I’ve found that paying attention to care can allow me to keep some of my herbs indoors in the winter. While many of my plants live by the garden door, there is a window shelf in the kitchen with a light that has a bit of sage and rosemary.
Discover more from Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
That’s so funny to picture you, gazing at the driveway, imagining raised beds there instead. Ha ha!
No lie, I was looking at my beds as the sun shifted, and I realized that the best sunlight was being wasted on the driveway. Shocking!
ha ha ha!!
I must protest! It is NOT an “old saw.” It is the most profound statement in Voltaire’s masterpiece, Candide. Dr. Pangloss goes on and on and on in his usual way even after a lifetime of wandering, illness, torture, physical diminution, and hardship. Candide responds with some of the truest words in literature. Candide is my desert island book.
Dr. Pangloss: “All events are linked together in the best of all possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been expelled from a fine castle for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you had not been put into the Inquisition, if you had not wandered through America on foot, if you had not given the Baron a great blow with your sword, if you had not lost all your sheep from the fine country of Eldorado, you would not be here eating preserved citron and pistachio nuts.”
“That is very well put,” said Candide, “but we must cultivate our garden.”
Besides, Lou, it seems you apply it to your own life! 😉
Yeah…I guess you are right…darn it!
Finally! After 73 1/2 years! 😁
https://marthakennedy.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/img_6165.jpg
Isn’t it time to cultivate those beans and squash, Martha?
I have rosemary, basil, mint, cilantro, and citronella
Alice, what do you use the citronella for?