Here’s a little secret: I do not have a green thumb.

I aspire to grow things. I dream of someday having my own little sustainable homestead, where I grow much of my food and raise some small livestock. (In this dream, I also seem to have developed a wardrobe that channels the pioneer days, but that’s neither here nor there.)

The reality, however, is that this is not the case. I do not have a homestead, I do not even have a yard or a balcony of my own. I do have a bit of shared patio, but it’s been very unclear what stuff is abandoned by former tenants (and thus free to move aside) and what belongs to those who live here now (and thus should not be touched). I also do not have a green thumb and am exceptionally bad at feeding or watering anything that cannot make some sort of noise to alert me that it is hungry. (Cats are exceptionally good at this, except when they trick me into giving them extra meals. I have developed a system to avoid this. TAKE THAT, CATS.)

This leaves indoors. Where I am also battling my own tendencies towards benign plant neglect with low light as my windows face north and east, neither of which are the best source of light.

That has not deterred me. I have been reading up on various edibles that can be grown indoors, and I have decided to start with some herbs. I bought basil, rosemary, and lemon verbena at the grocery store when I went this week. I need to transplant them, but I am out of potting soil. In the meantime, I set their tiny containers in makeshift ones to catch water, and set them on my kitchen windowsill. (My aloe plant also stuck a leaf into the photo to say hi. Hi, aloe! I’m sorry that I didn’t water you or rotate you for so long that you now list alarmingly to one side!)

I hope that once I transplant them, I will be able to remember to water them, and that there will be enough light for them to grow. If this is successful, I’m also considering getting another light for my living room, and some full spectrum bulbs and putting some more plants under one of the big windows there. I’m hoping the combo of light through the windows and full spectrum bulbs will be able to produce something.  But for now, I’m starting with these.