A basic starter project if you want to start growing your own food but have no money & no experience, assuming you like perilla/shiso, basil, mint, sage, or other herbs that have a square stem*.
1. Get a stem or five**, and pluck all the leaves off, except for the smallest. I worked with perilla/shiso this time, and started them in water, but often you can start them straight into soil. Here's one that's started to root in water:
2. Prepare your container. Someone I know had an excess of water jugs, so I cut it in half, poked a few holes in what was the top half, and then put it upside down inside of the bottom half. Ta-da, pot with drainage & saucer:
Be careful, obviously, because hurting yourself makes this go from a free project to a possibly rather expensive one. Soil can gotten for free, see the green onion version for more info on that.
3. Carefully make holes and plant your cuttings. I put a bag over the top to help increase humidity, because basil and perilla both seem a little fussy.
4. Put in the brightest light you have, and keep the soil evenly moist until you see new growth. These I'm starting inside but with the intention to plant outside in the summer. Obligatory check what's invasive in your area because someone told me perilla was invasive where they live. It's very much not here, it dies with the frost and I haven't gotten it to self-sow.
Tips:
Basil and perilla like it warm (above 50f/10c) and are best started indoors. Rosemary, sage, mint, etc, I've found easy to start outdoors. Keep shaded, moist, and cool until well established.
*for a fun project, look up how many culinary herbs are in the mint family! Lamiaceae will haunt your dreams!
** the first time I tried this, it was a stem of basil from take out, and I was so excited that it worked.
