I’ve done a lot of container gardening over the years, mainly herbs. I have planted herbs directly in the ground a couple of times and that worked fine but I keep coming back to container gardening. I guess we are usually renting and are not at liberty to dig up part of the yard for a vegetable patch. But also, I just like it. Container gardening just seems more user-friendly, less intimidating.

I’ve been meaning to start an herb garden since the day we moved here. That was ten months ago. I’m not sure what took me so freaking long, unless it’s all that traveling we seem to keep doing. But that’s just an excuse. We have to have someone watch the cats for us when we travel anyway, while they’re here they can water the plants too.

So the other day when we went to the base exchange (which is like a big department store, or on larger bases like ours, several stores) to look at Macs, we stopped in the garden center on a whim and picked up herbs, some tomatoes, a cucumber plant, and a big ol’ bag of potting soil.

I’ve never had great luck with growing tomatoes, in pots or in the ground, but I keep trying because the only kind of tomatoes I truly love are garden-fresh ones. I still won’t eat them raw except in salsa fresca but oh what wonderful salsa fresca they make! The cucumber I bought because Annalie and I both love them. I remember when I was a kid and my dad went through his gardening years, we always seemed to have a brown paper bag full of freshly-picked cucumbers still warm from the sun sitting on the counter. They were smallish and sweet, with so few seeds I didn’t even have to cut them out like I usually do with larger store-bought cukes. Man, I could eat a dozen of those garden-fresh cucumbers in one sitting.

What I really love most, though, are the herbs. I love cooking with fresh herbs. I love being able to step outside, snip a few sprigs of thyme, then come back inside and make the most kickass salad dressing. I love being able to make a batch of fresh pesto to eat over pasta or add to soups or use as a sandwich spread. I love sending Annalie out with the scissors to get some rosemary that I can mince and add to the home-fried potatoes.

I don’t know what took me so long to get around to doing this. Now the only question is, should I be thrifty and scrub out a few of the old dirt-crusted terracotta pots we already own, or should I be lazy and go buy more cheap terracotta pots? Cast your vote in the comments. On May 1st I’ll randomly pick a commenter to win a bottle of homemade vanilla!

Edited to add: There have been 50 comments so far, way more than I was expecting! You guys have all given me some great advice—it never occurred to me to put Annalie to work, duh—so I will draw TWO names on Friday and give away TWO bottles of vanilla. Heck, if enough people comment, maybe I’ll give away three!