Our Indoor Herb Garden

I was initially resistant to the idea of planting herbs indoors. There was the fear of the cat eating the herbs and getting sick, and also the fear of a roach invasion. In college, my houseplant wilted and sank into its pot, probably due to insufficient water and sunlight. But my husband, who does most of the watering anyway, was set on having a few herbs to turn to when the store was too far or the basil too expensive. He took a pot we had kept full of little flowers on our fire escape until the flowers died with the New York autumn weather. In it, he planted some basil, rosemary, and chives. Now we water every day, or whenever the basil starts to wilt. While the rosemary has only been used for rosemary roasted potatos and for a baked pasta, the basil has been used constantly, for every tomato based pasta sauce and occasionally for bruschetta or pizza. Unfortunately, the cat thought the chives were cat grass, and they are a flattened bunch of dry stalks. On the brighter side, she hasn't gotten sick.