By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
No matter if you had a “green thumb” or not, all were welcome to the Islington Branch of the Westwood Public Library to partake in an Herb Container Gardening program. This unique program allowed those who registered to pick and choose their very own herbs to plant in a window planter box.
Programming Librarian, Suzie Canale, has been running this event for a while now and it is one of her absolute favorites. She is an avid gardener at her own home, so she is always super excited to share her love of planting with those at the library.
Before Suzie let everyone dig into planting, she started off the program by explaining the herbs that she brought and how they could best be used. She additionally told attendees some cool facts about each herb and tips/tricks on the best way to care for them. For example, Parsley seeds tend to take a while to sprout, especially if they are not exposed to the right amount of heat. To quick- start this process, Suzie suggested covering them in a warm, damp paper towel and leaving them on the top of your fridge. This way, between the moisture and the heat of the fridge, the seeds will sprout faster and be ready to plant in no time!
Another great tip that Suzie shared was to make sure you know exactly where you are getting your plants from. She went on to state, “One tip that I really want to add to this is that when you pick your flowers or your herbs, it is important to know where you got them from. Because if the herbs, like a lavender plant, were grown to be floral or landscape designed, then you don’t want to eat it. In this case, it has probably been treated with something, chemicals or whatever, I mean I guess you could wash it, but the problem is that it’ll eat everything that it’s taking from the soil, so all the nutrients go to the stem and the flower.”
For the herbs that Suzie provided, she made sure that she knew exactly where they came from. In terms of the choices of herbs that everyone could choose from, Suzie brought some great options! Everyone had the luxury of choosing three of the four plants: Oregano, Chive, Thyme, and Mint. Suzie additionally brought a few other herbs, like Rosemary, Parsley, and Sage, that were raffled off in the end. To make this a fair game, Suzie would ask a trivia question about the plant she was “auctioning off” and whoever had the correct answer won that plant to put into their planter!
In order to plant these delicious herbs, all were in need of some soil and Suzie bought the best of the best. She demonstrated and explained each step of the process before having attendees do it on their own. When they were finished, everyone had their own personal planter box that they could either put on a South-facing window, or even just in their backyard. Additionally, Suzie gave everyone multiple handouts which included a “How To Care For Your Herb Container Garden” guide, a “General Herb Use in Cuisine” list, and two different recipes that could be used with the herbs they planted.
Overall, this program was a huge success and absolutely everyone had an amazing time. There was certainly no shortage of laughs and smiles. One can only hope that Suzie will bring this back in the years to come.
