Nesting Green Home & Garden Special Issue
Seasonal Salads What to plant for tasty greens year-round
Conserving Water, Anticipating Surprises A profile of Deborah Brady
Not a Yolk Backyard chickens produce
Eco-Paint the Town Environmentally friendly options
On the Wing Plants that attract birds and butterflies
Small Space, Big Tastes
Ten herbs you can grow in your apartment
By Kelly L. Walker
You don’t need a yard with a garden to access fresh herbs year-round for use in your favorite dishes — and I’m not referring to those plastic boxes at the supermarket. Herbs thrive in pots on sunny windowsills, so even an apartment-dwelling cook can enjoy them with ease.
Tip: Herbs love to be used and abused, so frequent removal of leaves for cooking helps keep these plants bushy and active. If you lack south-facing windows, a fluorescent light bulb can often provide sufficient light for an indoor garden.
A star for thriving on neglect, rosemary flourishes in south-facing windows where sun is most plentiful. Like many herbs, it can be grown from small cuttings of outdoor plants, if available.
Also a sun-lover, basil will grow full and lush year-round if kept warm enough. Pinching off its flowering tips keeps its foliage thick for regular harvest.
Oregano prospers in abundant indirect sunlight with little attention besides frequent harvest to keep the plant from growing leggy.
An essential culinary herb, thyme comes in numerous varieties with diverse flavors and can grow in eastern or western windows if the southern sills are occupied.
Famous for its stubborn survival and for spreading, mint is easily harnessed in a pot indoors (or out) for a multitude of culinary and medicinal uses.
Stevia may be a less classical herb, but don’t overlook its low-calorie sweetening powers. Perfect for sweet teas or standalone treats, this South American plant needs plenty of sunlight and an occasional mist of water for humidity.
Chives boast round lavender flower heads that are edible but may impair the flavor of the leaves, so you may opt to snip off the flower buds of half your crop.
With attractive, gray-green leaves, sage adds beauty to a sunny part of the home, as well as key flavor to many dishes.
On the less hardy side but well worth the challenge, parsley is best grown in a window with southern exposure, and its soil should not be allowed to dry out.
Finally, lemongrass is a common ingredient in Asian cooking and teas, and its soil may be left to dry out between waterings.
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
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None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519