The Basil Bonanza

Mt. Basil

Chopped fine

So now the basil puts money in my pocket as well as forecasting the weather.
















Those cute little packages of cubed frozen basil as mentioned in the previous basil blog sell for $3.99 each.  My mountain of basil made approximately 18 of those.

Bagged to freeze

Things I get to do today are count my money and head to the bank. That's $71.82.

Basil Barometer

My garden is smart.  Your's probably is, too--if you planted basil, that is. I understand that basil can tell you when the summerish fall season is coming to an end and when to put the garden to bed. As long as the leaves are green and spotless, the growing is good. When the leaves turn black, that's the end.

Most of the leaves are still green.  These are saying "coming soon."

Weather fortune tellers that we all like to be, help me read my basil leaves today.









So in the midst of and between rain showers Things I get to do today take me to the basil borders to pull the fragrant plants. I'll strip the leaves and maybe the stalk of blossoms, toss them into the food processor for a buzz. The ground basil will be bagged, pressed very flat, and frozen. If the store can sell frozen chopped basil (just like fresh), there's no reason why I can make my own even if my fertile imagination hasn't created a way to freeze it in the cute little cubes.

Making Babies: Planting

You have to have seeds if you are going to plant them.  Duh!  Well, maybe you could have figured that out, but it certainly caught me by surprise.  Things I get to do today said, "plant warmth-needing seeds," and I had not bothered to buy any.  I didn't even really know for sure what types I wanted to start.

In a bit of a dither, I shuffled through the stack of seed catalogs until the most familiar name appeared.  Page after page were filled with mouth-watering descriptions of the finest growies on earth.  I circled and checked far more than my garden could hold.  Finally, my wits crept back to me, and I thought of checking my left-over seeds from last season.



Amazing!  There in my hands were several packets of certainly-cannot-live-without-this-one seeds I had just circled in the catalog--even the same company.  Now this mama was really excited.  Rummaging through the backlog of seed packets produced everything I needed for the nursery starts: tomatoes (7 kinds), eggplant, sweet peppers, cucumbers (3 types), basil, a pale yellow sunflower and zinnias (big, brilliant red ones).

Little cribs in a nursery row

I planted all my old seeds--some from as far back as 2006--in sifted compost that I sterilized in our outdoor gas grill. Don't even think about doing it in your oven.

Lids to my baby "cribs" had labels that would shade
the young starts.  Pour very warm water over the plastic
underside of the label to soften the adhesive.
Makes removal quite easy.

Seed cribs with soft, compost mattresses and cozy, clear covers promise to grow very happy, healthy babies.  Now we wait (continued tomorrow).