PREPPERS PARADISE AHEAD

Did You Know That Bell Peppers Can Be Grown Indoors? 10 Home Herbs.

Image: Brooke Lark

Suppose you are making a delicious pesto sauce and find yourself in need of some basil. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just stretch your hand and take a few fresh leaves from your home garden? What about some parsley? Or maybe even a bell pepper? Believe it or not, with a couple of flowerpots, this kind of thing is possible in every home. Read on and discover 10 herbs and vegetables commonly used in the kitchen that can be grown with very little care and space, including plants that you never thought could thrive in such an environment.

Image: Yakob Leonov

Whether you are making pesto, a Margherita pizza, or a number of other things, basil is a great herb to have around. And the fresh variety is a huge improvement over the dehydrated one.

Lucky for us, this plant can easily be grown indoors. Just a small flower pot or vessel with small holes for drainage on the bottom, soil, and a bit of sunlight. Harvest by cutting a few stems just above where two leaves meet and the plant will keep on giving!

Image: Chandan Chaurasia

A herb so noble its uses are too varied to count, parsley can be easily grown indoors. All it requires is a small pot, some lightly moistened soil, and a sunny window. Give the plant these humble ingredients and it will reward you with an infinite supply of aromatic leaves that can be minced, chopped, or used in full for a myriad of dishes and sauces.

Image: Jane Duursma

Chives are a basic ingredient for many recipes but groceries only deliver tiny packages of cut chives or full plants that last only one meal or two. Fortunately, chives are a great herb to grow indoors.

The seeds can be sowed in a pot placed in a sunny spot, with a tray of pebbles and water under the pot to give the plant some extra moisture and you’re all set!

Image: Dayana Brooke

Sprinkle it on a pizza, a roasted chicken, a tomato slice, or a thousand other foods, oregano is a celebrity herb in the Mediterranean pantry. And the great news is that, if it is on this list, it can be home grown!

Find a flowerpot with holes on the bottom, add some pebbles and soil, then put the seeds inside. Oregano needs lots of sunlight so make sure to place it near a sunny window and it will provide an infinite amount of flavor for your dishes.

Image: Babette Landmesser

Most people would not believe that a sturdy, shrub-like herb can grow well indoors but, in the case of the rosemary, it does. It is a friendly plant that can be grown in the same pot with basil, as it shares the same soil and sunlight conditions. Snip a few stems to add amazing flavor to meats, pasta, and all kinds of preparations!

Image: Markus Spiske

Add a touch of French cuisine flavor to your everyday dishes with this aromatic wonder. Poultry, salads, soups, egg dishes, and virtually everything can be enhanced with this culinary jack of all trades.

To grow chervil indoors, simply plant the seeds into a small pot or container with some soil and put it close to a sunny window. Trim leaves and stems for your preparations and the plant will keep on giving for as long as you need it to.

Image: Paulina H.

A herb so wonderful that it is even used to drive mosquitoes away, sage can be grown in the comfort of your own home. As with all the plants on our list, it needs all the sunlight your home can provide, a small pot, and fresh soil.

Its soft leaves, resembling bunny ears, can be plucked out to make flavorful stuffings, sausages, sauces, and more.

Image: Anja Junghans

All aromatic plants and herbs are beautiful in their own right and can help decorate a room, but if the plant is especially beautiful like thyme is, then the benefit doubles! This wonderful herb can add flavor to your roasted potatoes, chicken drumsticks, roasted vegetables, pasta, soup, and everything in between.

As usual, give it a sunny spot, a well-drained soil that can dry between waterings, and your gorgeous thyme plant is good to go.

Image: Shaun Meintjes

A multi-talented herb like mint flourishes in all kinds of preparations: from savory dishes and mojitos to chocolate-mint desserts, and as a topping for ice creams or infused in a tea.

If you were to plant it outdoors, mint can run wild and thrive by itself. But, since we are talking indoor plants here, we must advise putting mint in a small pot with rich soil and frequent watering. This way, your mint plant will grow and provide all its freshness for a very long time.

Image: Louis Hansel

Few vegetables are as ubiquitous in our dishes as bell peppers. You can stuff them literally everywhere. And growing bell peppers indoors has the advantage of providing a year-round supply of delicious homegrown produce.

Bell peppers are ideal for growing in pots. They need well-drained rich soil with organic matter and, again, all the sunlight your home can provide. Make a small stick cross, about 12 inches high, and plant it firmly in the soil, so the bell pepper that grows can attach itself to it.

Decoding language

The secret history of punctuation marks: From commas to ampersands

Image: Samuel Ramos

Punctuation shapes how we read, write, and think—yet it often goes unnoticed until its absence makes a sentence hard to understand. Most punctuation marks weren’t always part of the language; many have surprising backstories, and some are even relatively recent additions to English grammar. Here are the stories behind 10 marks that give structure—and meaning—to our sentences.

Image: Randy Tarampi

The period began as a simple dot used by Aristophanes of Byzantium to mark the end of a sentence. Its purpose was to improve clarity in long manuscripts, at a time when spaces between words did not exist.

Over the centuries, it evolved into the familiar punctuation mark we know today, becoming a universal symbol of grammatical correctness.

Image: Jacob Pretorius

The comma was added in the 3rd century BCE to indicate a brief pause while reading aloud. Its name comes from the Greek komma, meaning "a piece cut off."

It was later popularized in the Renaissance to structure complex sentences, helping writers convey rhythm and meaning more clearly.

Image: Annie Spratt

Italian printer Aldus Manutius introduced the semicolon in 1494 to separate closely related independent clauses.

It became a favorite among scholars, as it allowed nuanced connections between ideas without fully breaking a sentence.

Image: Connor Pope

The colon was also popularized by Manutius, used to introduce lists or explanations.

It historically guided readers in written speeches or complex texts, marking a shift in thought or attention to important details.

Image: Uladzislau Petrushkevich

The question mark likely comes from the Latin word quaestio, which was often abbreviated as ‘qo’ at the end of sentences.

Scribes eventually stylized the abbreviation into the curved mark we use today, which has become a universal signal for a question or inquiry.

Image: James Orr

Introduced in the 16th century, the apostrophe marks omitted letters and abbreviations, as in don’t from do not.

It also indicates possession in English; however, its use in that sense didn’t become standardized until the 18th century.

Image: Tim Mossholder

The hyphen emerged in the Middle Ages to join words or split lines. Printers sometimes used it to avoid awkward spacing.

Today, it joins compounds like well-being or divides words at line breaks, helping preserve clarity in written language.

Image: Brett Jordan

Parentheses were introduced in the 15th century to provide supplemental information without breaking the main text.

They guide readers through secondary thoughts, examples, or clarifications more efficiently.

Image: John Murphey

Did you know that the ampersand is a ligature of the letters "e" and "t"? Together, they form et, the Latin word for "and."

Used since Roman times, it became a typographical shorthand as well as a symbol of elegance in logos and design.

Image: Laura España

Created in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter, the interrobang combines a question mark and an exclamation mark into a single symbol.

It expresses surprise and inquiry simultaneously, though it never became a standard punctuation mark. However, using both signs together is common in comic books and informal writing to convey the same effect.