Container Gardening_Sweet Basil
My love for gardening started with my success in growing Sweet Basil. That was 7 years ago, 2010. Below is my picture with my new tools and this feels just like yesterday...
Seven years later, I am still at it. I now grow my basil from cuttings and I have lost count of how many generations of basils I've had from my original seedlings. Whenever I prune my basil plants before thy bolt, I set aside seedlings into glass containers. Just put them in water and leave them at a sunny spot for 2 weeks and voila! they're ready to be planted.
I've learned to freeze my basils. I don't use that much for pesto anyway. I first run them through a food processor and just put them in ice trays. No water or oil needed. Sometimes I run out of ice trays so I just keep them in plastic. This has been proven helpful since there are times that I became busy and my garden was not at its best condition...yes my plants do die at some point. But every time, I still manage to save some cuttings to recover.
Now I just have one container pot of Basil in my garden. I just revived it from last year's set of basil pots. I usually rotate my use of my container pots. I've had basil, edamame and tomatoes use the same set of pots now. After I harvest my tomatoes, I'll bring back the basils again so I can replenish my basil stock in the freezer.
My frozen basils recently came in handy when I found my pantry empty of vegetables for our meals. It was either canned goods or delivery for me and Diego. Then I found a plastic of spaghetti, some nuts and my tumbler of parmesan cheese. Of course I always have Olive oil and garlic on hand so Pesto pasta became my menu. My son now loves pesto pasta. So it does help hoarding during times like these.
And it always feels good to use your garden for the kitchen. Gardening and cooking...what a great combination too!
Seven years later, I am still at it. I now grow my basil from cuttings and I have lost count of how many generations of basils I've had from my original seedlings. Whenever I prune my basil plants before thy bolt, I set aside seedlings into glass containers. Just put them in water and leave them at a sunny spot for 2 weeks and voila! they're ready to be planted.
I've learned to freeze my basils. I don't use that much for pesto anyway. I first run them through a food processor and just put them in ice trays. No water or oil needed. Sometimes I run out of ice trays so I just keep them in plastic. This has been proven helpful since there are times that I became busy and my garden was not at its best condition...yes my plants do die at some point. But every time, I still manage to save some cuttings to recover.
Now I just have one container pot of Basil in my garden. I just revived it from last year's set of basil pots. I usually rotate my use of my container pots. I've had basil, edamame and tomatoes use the same set of pots now. After I harvest my tomatoes, I'll bring back the basils again so I can replenish my basil stock in the freezer.
My frozen basils recently came in handy when I found my pantry empty of vegetables for our meals. It was either canned goods or delivery for me and Diego. Then I found a plastic of spaghetti, some nuts and my tumbler of parmesan cheese. Of course I always have Olive oil and garlic on hand so Pesto pasta became my menu. My son now loves pesto pasta. So it does help hoarding during times like these.
And it always feels good to use your garden for the kitchen. Gardening and cooking...what a great combination too!
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