Friday, June 29, 2012

Herb update: Basil, basil, and more basil

This year I went all out with the basil, planting four kinds: Greek, Lime, Genovese, and Sweet.

All were started indoors with the other seed starts. Too bad I can no longer tell the Genovese and the Sweet apart since they got mixed up early on and look so similar. Since the community garden is a car drive away, we have found that it is easier just to grow herbs inside so that we have them on hand as we are cooking. Unfortunately, our sun situation is a little iffy. Front of the house gets an intense burst for 3-4 hours and the back gets a little filtered light mid-morning.  So far, the plants in both places look pretty good. I still have a few more in yogurt cups that need to go to the garden but we'll see if they ever make it there. In the meantime we have enough to start drying.

In the back of the house we have what I belive is one of the sweet basil plants.


The lime basil next to it is already leggy and is constantly trying to set flowers. Same thing happened last year when it was in the front window. Shot up like a weed and put out flowers right away.



 The sage in the back window is still rather delicate and has had troubles with black aphids eating at it.



 In the back window we have.....



A Greek basil plant that has stayed nice and compact. The pot next to it has another Greek and I think a Genovese. The suspected Genovese has climbed a lot and already had about 4" whacked off the top.





We also have some really promising looking sage in the back window. I learned the hard way that sage does best when you pretty much starve it of water (mimicking a hot and dry Mediterranean climate). This was done accidentally this year but it looks really developed (it looks like a baby palm tree below). The marjoram next to it is doing well and has gotten pretty big considering the size of the pot it is in.


My oregano is doing well even though it is in a small pot. 


I killed my first bee balm start with waaaay too much water.  Luckily I have one more plant that may survive if I get it into the garden soon. 


My cilantro is still tiny (read: sad)  and had to be moved to the back window after it started to bolt in the front. Now it is bolting in the back as well. So much for so-called  the "Slo-Bolt" variety. If it bolts in here where it is 72 degrees I hate to think what it would look like in the 99 degree garden by now.



My chives are looking sad but they have been inside for 3 years now and probably need a boost. I need to remember to give them some fish emulsion. They are trying to flower though. I know I should snip them off since I don't want to tax the plant any further but they are so pretty!




  And here are our remaining herbs that need to go into the garden this weekend.





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