A little spice, a lot less work

A little spice, a lot less work

---

What to do when your thumb is less than green
Gardening takes time, a lot of time. There's the weeding and watering, pinching and pruning, bug patrol, and more weeding and watering. I like the idea of a garden, just not all the work that comes with it.

I'm not sure if I want a garden or just what comes from the garden. The plump tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and striking magenta-colored potato skin on just-rinsed red potatoes.

And flowers. Seeing what others do with flowers nearly makes me weep. It’s stunning.

I don’t want to do the work, but I yearn for the look and the bounty of it all.

Last year I found a solution: container gardens.

Well, window boxes that sit on the porch railing. There’s a cut-out on the bottom of the box that fits the railing and holds it in place.

It is, for me, the perfect solution.

With container gardens, I satisfy an itchy, but less than green thumb. And having the boxes on the porches where I see them as I come and go ensures I won’t forget to prune and water, and water and prune what I've planted.

But still, I keep it simple.

Marigolds, some geraniums, and a small kitchen garden. Just herbs, really. Four plants: parsley and mint for one of my favorite summer recipes, quinoa tabouleh, along with thyme and oregano for good measure.

Container gardens are the answer to small spaces, and small ambitions ... in gardening.

Do you have a flower or kitchen garden? A more ambitious spread with rows of peas, potatoes, and varieties of this and that?

If gardening is not happening in your world, remember, there’s always the farmers’ market. Green thumbs all around and plenty of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.

Geraniums and flowers I cannot identify