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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Feast Your Eyes On Our Basil

We have basil growing everywhere this year - in the herb garden, in a container outside, in the SFG bed next to the tomatoes, and even indoors in our grow box.  To my delight, just about every single plant is growing spectacularly well, despite some challenges with Japanese Beetles, leaf miners and other bugs I haven't identified.  In an effort to keep our garden as organic as possible, I haven't sprayed any insecticides.  I just pick off any bugs I see and discard the damaged leaves.

This container holds about 8-10 basil plants.  I'm sure they are crowded in there, but since I don't really need any more basil, I haven't attempted to transplant any out. 


This is our guinea pig basil - our first attempt at growing basil in our indoor grow box.  We transplanted a small plant (about 5-6 inches tall at the time) from the herb garden into this container about a month ago. It is now ginormous, and probably needs a bigger container. 

The size of some of the leaves from our indoor basil is just mind boggling.  It's exactly the same variety as the basil  growing outside, but the leaves seem to be at least 2-3 times larger.  I did read somewhere that basil grown in full sun tends to grow smaller leaves than basil grown in part-shade.  I don't know if one is necessarily better than the other, but we've got both, so it's all good.

12 comments:

Frugal Gardener said...

Holy cow!!! Your basil is amazing. I love, absolutly LOVE basil. Congrats on your fantastic bounty!

thyme2garden said...

Frugal Gardener - thank you so much! I also love basil, but it's getting to a point where I feel like we have too much growing for just our consumption. But better too much than too little, right?

~TastyTravels~ said...

Wowza! That's a monster leaf! LOL!! Congrats on a great job with the basil! Mine are pretty pathetic. I forgot about them in their starter containers and they've gone neglected. I wonder if they'll grow into the fall?

thyme2garden said...

Thanks Holly! Assuming that your basil plants haven't outgrown their starter container, if you set them out in the full sun and give them enough water, they should be able to grow. Basil seems to do a lot better when they have room to grow. They should be able to grow until the weather gets too cold for them at around 50 F.

Erin said...

The basil is beautiful! Basil is easy to grow indoors, this year I am going to forgo completely freezing it to preserve and just stick with pots of it!

Annie*s Granny said...

You can snip off a stem or two of it and put it in a glass of water on the windowsill. It not only keeps well, allowing you to use a few leaves as needed, it will root and can be potted up to use fresh all winter.

Shawn Ann said...

I just LOVE Basil! I love the smell! Mmmmm!

thyme2garden said...

Erin - I think you're on to something there. Indoor basil pots for everyone this winter!

* * * * *
Granny - I keep forgetting to try the basil in water method. It would be interesting to see how long I can keep the same plant going with this propagation method.

* * * * *
Shawn Ann - I totally agree with you!

meemsnyc said...

Oh my goodness!! Your basil leaves that you are growing inside are GIGANTIC! LOL. Wow, and wow! I just got greek basil seeds in a seed exchange so I'm hoping they germinate soon!

Vic said...

When the plants finish off at the end of the season, try using the hardwood stems as shish kabob sticks. Your plants look great.

thyme2garden said...

meemsnyc - I know, it's crazy how big some of them are growing. I hope your basil seeds germinate soon, too. Let us know how they grow!

* * * * *
Vic - that is a brilliant idea! I will have to try that. Thank you!

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