When I was a kid, I loved to help my mom in the little herb and vegetable garden in our back yard. I always felt a keen sense of accomplishment whenever we could use the plants we grew. We grew different kinds of mint for tea, basil and rosemary for seasoning and lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.
When I moved into an apartment after high school, I had no place to grow things outside, and I didn't get enough sunlight to grow anything inside. But my habit of using fresh herbs didn't go away and I wasted tons of money buying packs of fresh herbs at the grocery store that wilt in less than a day. I had been thinking of trying to have a garden with artificial light but never had enough motivation until I enrolled in historical ecology.
It turns out, there is an easy way to grow plants in fish tanks with a fluorescent light in the top. It can be expensive to get started, but the cost is well worth it if you know what to plant. Your best bet will be to look for fish tanks in the classifieds or a thrift store. You'll also need non-colored pebbles and activated carbon which can be found in pet stores. Sterile soil, sphagnum or spanish moss, and plants can be found in a garden shop, Lowes, Home Depot or Wal Mart. I would suggest finding a locally owned garden shop, they tend to be the most helpful.
Deciding what to grow can be difficult if you don't cook a lot. I choose to start off growing basil, parsley, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, chives and romaine lettuce. These herbs are versatile and called for in many of the recipes I use. If you're not sure what to grow, I'd suggest finding a cookbook with dishes in it that you already know you like. Then just see what fresh herbs are called for in the recipes you'll make most often and try to find those plants to grow in your terrarium.
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