grow a herb garden

It’s true! We have installed the automatic watering system, and we can go away on vacation without worrying about the plants and the herbs!!!

There are lots of nerve-wrecking details about how this was accomplished, but the most important thing is it’s finished!

The 4th basil pot is dried out, but I have bought seeds and will plant them when we return from vacation!

Over the past weeks I’ve been buying basil in pots from various vendors. I now have 4 of them.
3 are of a flat-leaf variety, and have been doing outstandingly well.
The fourth pot doesn’t look so well. The farmer who planted it for me said to keep it indoors (away from the sun) for a week watering it daily, and then put it outside on the balcony (away from direct sunlight) and water every other day.
Although I’m following his instructions, I must be doing something wrong, because of the 3 sprigs one has lost all its leaves and the other two are barely alive.
We’ll see.

...on the automatic watering system.
My bil recently installed one and tells me there’s nothing to it, but I find the whole idea intimidating!
Next week is my deadline to go ahead and just do it!

Chris and I planted seeds in some old bottles. We’re trying to grow Basil, Oregano, Rosemary and Thyme. Hopefully they live :)

I already have a herb garden.
I have mint, spearmint, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, apple geranium, lavender, and lemon verbena (plus a little chives).
And I use most of my herbs, both for cooking and for other uses.

Most of my herbs hold well all year round, with the exception of basil that dies on me every year around Christmas.

What I want to do differently is plant basil seeds all year round and keep them at my window sill, so that I have fresh basil all the time.
It seems impossible to make the perfect tomato sauce without a snip or two of fresh basil…

I also want to install an automatic watering system, so that I don’t have to worry about my herbs in the summer, when days are hot, and we’re away on vacation.

Always finding an excuse, the weather is too hot, I have to work, too tired etc. Well just got off my bum and went to a local organic wholesaler and asked for advice. They were brilliant! I have decided to plant in pots rather than beds. Spent the day in my ‘garden’, singing and smiling.

yesterday, i bought a basil plant. Its not dead yet, so its a beginning ;)

I have always dreamed of growing everything that enters my body. I want to know that I what I put inside my mouth is pure and not harmful. Also, growing a herb garden must be a ton of fun!

It’s quite lovely to wander outside and snip a few herbs to add to a meal. There’s a brightness to fresh herbs you can’t duplicate with dried.

Only the ‘Donna Hay’ pot with coriander and basil is still alive. Everything else has pretty much withered away, and I don’t know why. When I say everything else, I mean the 3 other pots I had coriander, basil and chives. The latter never bothered to come out of its shell and coriander and basil just gave up at some point after a fairly successful start. Oh well.

It’s disappointing and I’m not sure I want to repeat this excercise again.. or maybe I will but with less expectations and high hopes.

Where did it all go wrong? ;-)