In past years I've written a lot about my vegetable garden, which brings me great joy. However, with that joy comes a certain amount of stress that I am sure to feel about mid-May when I know I should be getting my tomato and cucumber seeds in the ground. Then two years ago my tomato patch got sick with an illness called "blight" which rendered my tomatoes tasteless and virtually inedible. I was so incredibly sad over this that the next year I opted to skip my vegetable garden altogether (a somewhat immature act, but it's the truth).

So instead of planting vegetables in the ground, I decided to focus on herb plants in pots, and I had a ball! The process of tending to herbs in pots is a much easier task than tending to those in the ground. Given the portability of pots, you can shield your herbs from the rain if it's a soggy season, or easily water them with a watering can in just one or two trips. And the best part is that these fresh herbs can influence your summer cuisine in ways you may have never known were possible!