In real life, I live in an apartment where all my gardening is done on balconies and porches. A real gardener can grow quite a lot on a balcony and even someone like me (I always said I had a brown thumb) can manage very well. I hope this page will inspire you to plant some herbs and veggies in whatever space you might have.

It is a real thrill for me to take my bowl and scissors out to the porch to gather my salad. Many of the flowers I grow such as nasturtiums and pansies are edible and go right in the bowl along with the lettuce, spinach, arugula, chives, onions and basil. These grow together organically; the lettuce and herbs filling in between the flowers.

I especially like New Zealand Spinach because it is a part of my childhood; we used to gather it wild for salads. When I say wild, I mean we didn't plant it (maybe someone else once had); this was in the city. New Zealand Spinach grows prolifically and vines its way across pots, softening the outlines and creating a wholly satisfying garden out of a collection of containers.

One of the reasons I like growing my own herbs is that I can have unusual varieties. Chinese chives is a favorite; it tastes and smells of garlic as well as the traditional onion- chive flavor. Oregano can be Greek rather than Italian and the varieties of basil seem endless. Mint is manageable in a container of its own when it would have taken over a garden patch.

I like to use pocket planters, sometimes called strawberry pots, for herbs as well as berries. Be sure to plant something vertical like lavender or sage in the top section for an attractive shape. It helps to insert a central watering channel made of perforated PVC tubing; this will distribute the water more easily throughout the pot.

At my local farmer's market, salad and herb baskets are sold. They are attractive at first, but too crowded for sustained growth; move some of the plants to other containers. However, I do like their portability. Now that the winter rains are over and summer is crowding out spring, I need to water every day and often need to bring the herbs inside for protection from the heat. I could put up shade cloth, but it's quite easy to just move them to the kitchen.

My garden also includes the lemon tree that every cook needs. I like the dwarf Improved Meyer. There are also grapes, blackberries, tomatoes, bell pepers, and in the winter sugar snap peas vining up the railing. Lemon grass is always available for tea or Thai recipes.