Are you going to Scarborough Fair? My thumb is somewhere between brown and black. I haven't earned a green thumb yet. I can't grow grass, as witnessed by photos of our yard before the big transformation. So what possessed me to think that I could be trusted with herbs (like, you know, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) is beyond me. But I know this: I'm tired of running out to spend $3 on them whenever I have a recipe that calls from some fresh herb. And then, I use only a little bit of it. The rest just sits in the fridge forgotten, wasting its tasty little life. So I asked a friend for some advice on growing them. She told me good ones to start out with. And it just so happened that there was an herb show here last weekend. So I went. And I purchased. I bought Italian large leaf basil (did you know there are a ton of kinds of that stuff?), some parsely (ditto), french thyme (i've since found out it doesn't do very well here. which means i'll just kill it sooner rather than later), spearmint and maybe something else. Then I needed a pot. I saw someone carrying a cool one at the herb show, but I didn't hunt one down while i was there. That was stupid because I ended up going to three stores before I could find it. And then it was at the expensive greenhouse, of course, so it cost a pretty penny. While I was there, I asked someone how to use the pot. It looked a little confusing. After explaining it to me, the gardener/horticulturalist/lady at the greenhouse said she'd just made an herb garden in one of those planters, if I wanted to buy that one. But I've already bought my own herbs, I told her, kind of sadly. One planted by a professional? Surely that would give me a head start. I looked at it. It was pretty. The price tag, however, wasn't so pretty. It was $100. But after I totalled up everything I'd spent, it came to $95. (I had to get more herbs to fill all the spots, and after seeing hers, I'd gotten a good idea of how to go about it.) And I thought this was going to save me money. Uh huh. Riiight. So I've planted them. I finished one night pretty much in the dark. I had to go into the house and turn on the floodlight that shines on the driveway. And then since it's motion sensored and I wasn't in the direct path of it, it would cut off every 5 minutes. Boy can that make a person angry. Then I had to drag out the hose and water them in the dark. I couldn't really see the results until morning. It looks nice and kind of professional-like. See? Now, I just have to find a spot that will give it the sun it needs. That could prove maddening. We'll see which comes first: the maddening of jasclo or the demise of the herb garden. But after spending all that hard-earned cash to set it up, I will not let them die without a fight.