I've always been so fascinated by plants ever since I was a child. One of my clearest childhood memory being gardening labanos with my father and selling rambutan fruits to a loaded-jeep carrying people from the high mountains.
During this 2020 pandemic, I also noticed people run back to gardening. It's after all a very productive, therapeutic hobby that you can do inside the safety of your own territory. I am lucky that I am in a place where we have enough land area with an environmental condition that is generally favorable to growing plants.
Plant Tita and Titos nowadays are mostly gardening ornamental plants. Ornamental plant is a classification of function, that function being these plants are for aesthetic purposes. But don't you know that a few of these ornamental plants are actually edible? Especially flowers, there is quite a number of ornamental plant with edible flowers and rose flower is a good example.
Now that we're on the topic of edible plants, for me it would be more productive, efficient, and ecological to grow something that could be aesthetically pleasing and edible at the same time. I love food. I love cooking. I always want to cook plant-ingredients I've grown myself. Hence, plants with culinary purpose are the apple of my eye!
Herbs are plants that can have medicinal, culinary, or sometimes both as purpose. We don't have a lot of already established herbs here in our home that's why I ventured out online and went to local fb groups selling plants. Unfortunately, they don't have herbs, and as expected, they're more on ornamentals. The next thing I did is to search outside my locality. As much as possible, I wanted to buy the stable, potted and already healthy grown herbs because those are much easier to propagate. But reality check, transport will be difficult for potted plants and expensive, out of my budget range.
I ended up buying seeds from a shop called Seedgrocer! Why this shop? I read reviews and found out they have good customer service. There's another shop with a cheaper offer but let's just say they aren't that friendly to customers. I prefer shops with good customer service and a few bucks is nothing as long as I approve of their attitude towards their buyers. Also, they have more variety of herbs. Seedgrocer is the perfect shop for me!
Easily transportable, these herb seeds have arrived today, delivered by a Ninja! Hahaha conceptwise, I really love the name of that courier company.
The first thing I noticed is their cute packaging. My precious seed babies are covered with a brown envelope, bubble wrapped and they don't look crush so I can say they are well-packed!
I bought a "Herb Bundle" and then some individual herb seeds.
The "Herb Bundle" has 3 herbs, namely, Arugula, Chives, and Thai Basil. What I like about Seedgrocer is their label consisting of the following information: approximate number of seeds, germination rate, plus expiration date.
I am not familiar with Arugula. I bought this because it looks tasty from the picture 😆 Arugula seeds are large enough too, which is good because the larger the seed, the less intimidating. With 50 seeds and high germination rate, there's a high chance a little Arugula will sprout!
Chives, I've encountered this herb from plenty of Chinese cuisine. I think Chives taste like onions. I love that taste and I'm excited to sprinkle some Chives on my meat dishes. Hopefully, I could grow some Chives and establish my parent-Chive from them! 90% germination rate is very high by the way that I'm thinking of planting Chives first just to...encourage myself that I can do this lol.
Thai Basil, very familiar. This one, I used it as my plant for my Tissue Culture class back in college. Terror teachers, my experiment didn't have good enough results for them, ugh, I'd rather not continue with this reminiscing. Unlike the first two herbs and most of the herbs to be discussed later, Thai Basil do have culinary and medicinal purpose, aesthetic too, but it is not a herb, rather, it is a shrub, esp. if we're going to speak about technicality. The main difference between a shrub and herb is their stems. Herbs have "herbaceous" stems, watery and easily breakable, while shrubs have thin, woody stems and they can be bushy once they reach maturity. Still, Thai Basil can be classified as a herb in a laymanize sense if we're speaking of its purpose. This one also have beautiful flowers, and just like all herbs, a strong, aromatic smell. I have high hopes my Thai Basil seeds will germinate!
Done with the discounted herb bundle I'm so excited to plant, let's proceed to the individual seed packs!
Let's tackle Flat Italian Parsley. Parsely is a known herb on grilled meat dishes and salads to enhance flavor and add aroma. Since I'm fond of grilled meat and salads, please Parsley, please be good to me! Plenty of seeds and a very high germination rate of 91%, hopefully, I can harvest fresh parsley leaves in the near future.
Next, Cilantro! From its name, I can feel a very strong aroma from this herb. This one is a freebie, thank you Seedgrocer, and the herb with the largest seed in my collection right now. Seeing these large seeds is a relief. They look like they will really germinate 🥴 Cilantro is my most mysterious herb because I didn't expect to have this one anytime soon, and yet, it's here.
And here we go, Rosemary. One of my main targets to grow and multiply in our garden. Rosemary is also a herb for grilled meat dishes, and in other countries, it is pretty much easy to grow. But this is Philippines so good luck and there are only 5 seeds. Yes, 5 seeds, the lowest seed count out of all herb packs I bought. Rosemary is costly but definitely worth it once ready for harvesting. Though germinating this one will be a challenge because of the small seed count, think positive anyway!
The last three herb packs are the smallest in terms of seed size. They intimidate me the most because size matters 😂 I'm scared that they will be easily carried by ants or other crawling insects, blown away by the wind, I might misplace them while sowing because they're too small! I guess I shall just do my best, do some sprinkling magic, cover with thin layer of soil even if these seeds will be difficult to discern by then once on soil, just good luck and I hope they all germinate and grow into healthy plants where upon maximum maturity, can be a source of new, viable seeds!
First, we have Tarragon. 50 seeds, good number, high chance of germinating plantlets! Best before July 2023, hahaha plenty of time to prepare myself! I'm just worried for Tarragon because it has the lowest germination rate. It will take some time for this one to germinate. Long waiting time means a long time being worried if your sowing is a sucess or epic fail. Lol.
But don't be pressured, self, successful or not, environmental factors are difficult to control and they do influence seed germination. Therefore, there are times when it won't germinate, but don't feel bad. There's always next time and it happens. Sometimes, it's just not really meant to be. Awie.
For Spearmint, I'm supposed to buy Mint, but changed my mind and bought Spearmint instead. I did some research and found out Spearmint has a higher market value and this should have similar taste to that of mint. Mint family is also known for being low-maintenance and their high growth rate. Once I have grown enough Spearmint, I'm planning to concoct some Spearmint oil!
Last and the probably the most intimidating is Thyme. Unlike Rosemary with larger seeds, Thyme has small seeds and this pack only have a seed count of 15! However, just like the mints, Thyme, once successfully germinated and stable, is a wild herb requiring low-maintenance based from my research. This herb is also well use on different cuisines, I can't wait to add some Thyme on my meal in the future!
The shop where I bought these herb packs offer specific digital planting guides for each plant. I already downloaded them all. Included in the parcel is a printed basic sowing guide and a thank you note. My heart is full knowing I'm supporting small businesses in these hard times.
I hope you enjoy reading and thank you for your interest. Best wishes to your own endevours too. If you're like me who love plants and nature in general, in our own little ways, let us live a life in harmony with all those that matters to us. Let us live a productive, sustainable, and responsible life 😊
From a Garden Fae,
☘️ s e j u r u ☘️
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