I met my future husband, Alex, two weeks after we started college. We had both just turned 18, and we had a lot of big dreams. He wanted to teach English abroad, I wanted to be a lawyer (LOL). Obviously, a lot changed. We both ultimately switched our majors, finances forced me to take a year away from my education, and we prioritized being together sometime in year 3 of our relationship, forever changing the way we considered different life paths.

Some themes in our dreaming emerged early on. We wanted to get married in our early 20s, buy a house, and be a picture-perfect young couple with our first baby on the way and our dog chewing on a bone when we harvested our garden for the first time. (Our lovable tabby cats would be looking out at us from the window.)

And then we had a reality check.

We graduated from university broke. Completely broke. Broke broke. During the last semester of our senior year, we were struggling to feed ourselves. He was $35k deep in student loan debt, both of our cars broke down, and I had put the last semester of my education on a high interest credit card after being denied a student loan.

We also had a wedding to plan.

So, we put off home ownership and started with purchasing our first car together, getting ready for the wedding, and paying off the credit cards. Home ownership felt far away and we had to answer a lot of questions about our future. Should we have a child when we still live in an apartment? Maybe! Our apartment was affordable, but it was also a decently sized 2 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse. Should we invest in graduate school, or a house? If I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom someday, Alex's education and potential salary matters, so... Is this the housing market we want to purchase in? What do we know? We're 22.

With all this uncertainty, I let a lot of my dreams fall to the side. I took a side job in my decade long career as a nannying, decided not to get a dog, and forgot about houses with lush gardens.

And then I talked to my grandmother. She is my ideal roll-model. To my mother's dismay, my grandma and I are a lot alike. We have similar tastes in clothes, food, and lifestyle. We both love to cook and bake, craft, and have similar ideas about raising children.

She was only 16 when she married my grandfather and moved from rural Kentucky to a tiny apartment in Ohio. Even in this apartment, she kept up with her own dreams, aspirations, and skills. My grandmother is a homemaking, caregiver, mother, grandmother, and a gardener. She has kept a sizable garden since she was a child, managing to help feed her family healthy, homecooked meals since the 1940s. She's a superstar, and she is the one who encouraged me to pursue aspirations in my life that I was keeping from myself. Just get a dog. Grow an indoor garden. Have a baby when you feel ready, not because you think you need a playroom.

And I listened.

First, we adopted a jet-black Chihuahua on the way home from our honeymoon. (We checked out of the hotel 3 days early to get him.)

Then, we ended birth control.

And THEN, we started an indoor garden. (Because gardening seemed more difficult than childrearing? Sure, Amy.)

Here's how we started.

Aerogarden

I love a good indoor hydroponic garden. I have been looking at various models for years and ended up purchasing my Goodful Aerogarden on a whim when it went on sale for $75.

I also bought all the pods I could find, because I'm an irresponsible home gardener who didn't make a game plan.

I ended up planting dill, basil, mint, black seeded simpson lettuce, parris island lettuce, and a tomato plant.

Using an aerogarden is pretty easy. It is a good first step into indoor gardening. All you do is fill up the tank, add some of the included liquid fertilizer, and turn on the light.

Aerogardens are so easy, they leave you plenty of time to stare at the sprouts with intense anticipation and longing. I have been doing that for 2 weeks.

I'm excited that the dill, basil, lettuce plants, and tomatoes are doing so well, but I am intensely disappointed by the lack of growth from the mint plant. I will be retaliating in the near future by planting some mint in the windowsill.

Herb Garden

About a week after purchasing my Aerogarden and building up some false confidence with the first couple sprouts, I went to a local plant nursery and purchased this gorgeous white pot, some potting soil, and three additions to my insatiable thirst for fresh herbs. This time I purchased some tarragon my husband had to have, lavender for my tea, and oregano because, breadsticks.

I tossed some small stones over the soil to help keep everything in place and made sure these beauties were located in a sunny window with adequate drainage. My lavender hasn't blossomed yet, but so far, so good.

My Superstar: Alpine Pineapple Crush Strawberry Plant

Herbs are expensive and vegetables are great, but berries are one of my favorite foods and subsequently account for a decent portion of our grocery budget. I buy 2 containers of whatever fresh berries I can find on sale and purchasing frozen mixed berries for my daily smoothies.

I am pretty much Violet Beauregarde from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

I did a lot of research on growing berries inside, and I was disappointed to find that the blueberry plants I remember so fondly from my grandmother's garden wouldn't fit well into my home.

So I made a strong pivot to my second favorite berry, the strawberry—which isn't even a berry, but like, we can talk about that later.

There are two main groups of strawberries. The everbearing and the june bearing. Everbearing strawberries produce fruit all year long in moderate to warm climates. Their secret to everlasting berry success is in the runners they produce with new fruit. These runners will naturally replant themselves in an outdoor environment, but can be difficult to manage in a pot.

But don't worry, june bearing strawberries are perfect for indoor gardening! These plants will typically produce fruit in larger batches, in June. (duh). I plan to eat, freeze, and perhaps make some canned jam if I get a large batch, but with one plant I shouldn't be able to produce a super large quantity in this first year.

Alpine strawberries taste more like wild berries than the large strawberries you can find in the grocery store. They have a more intense strawberry flavor. I purchased my Alpine Pineapple Crush Strawberry plant from a seller on Etsy because I was so intrigued by the shape of the berries and the promise of a sweet, pineapple taste.

But there is some hope for my mid-December berry cravings, the Alpine strawberry can produce berries all year long in the right environment. With enough love and care, this plant should be able to produce berries for me and my family (but like, mostly me) for 3-5 years before needing a replacement.