For one of the dishes my husband and I made together last weekend, we needed fresh basil. When we were at Whole Foods, I saw a basil plant and immediately was drawn to it. Just a few pence more — truly, it was 50 pence more for a whole plant instead of picked basil in a bag — I knew it had to come home with us. I grew up with my mom growing herbs in the backyard, so she used to just send me outdoors to pick the rosemary, cilantro or any of the other ingredients she grew and needed that night.

Urban living has meant my green spaces have mostly been the likes of Hyde Park {and of course, Central and Washington Square when living in New York}. It does always seem like the grass is greener, as despite this incredible city I catch myself longing for a big open yard with much space to grow anything my heart desires and the climate allows. Luckily, we do have some small trees and bushes outside our building, and I sometimes use some of the leaves for centerpieces (!).

There are great options to bring these sweet herbs indoors {plus plants add so much life to any space}. I’m interested in projects like this and this, but for right now I have planted our sweet little plant in a terracotta pot fit for the countertop. With a little water based white paint, I wrote “basil” in script and it dried virtually clear. I went over it a few times and love the way you can read the name of the herb without it shouting at you in a bright paint. A little wrap of some raffia up top in a bow makes it a cute, simple addition to our kitchen.

All you need, plus some scissors to cut the raffia… and your herbs!

{We used a lot of basil this weekend, I need to prune the extra tall stems!}