Chef Planter and Kitchen Gardens

I can’t stress enough the value of growing your own ingredients. Something. Anything. Gardening offers up the ability to grow more interesting varieties of foods, including ones you may not be able to find elsewhere (hello, chocolate mint!—you have got to try this amazing herb). It also gives you access to the freshest possible items, the ability to influence size, shape, and flavor intensity, and, sometimes, with a little creative planting, the ability to create unique flavors from proximity planting and cross-pollination. Appreciation for each leaf, seed, petal, and drop of nectar really increases when you see how much time and energy it takes just to grow a stalk of basil, or get that first crop of tomatoes to turn red.