So after venturing into purchasing other plants, I still
have not found any that I love more than my herbs. I haven’t even planted my garden yet even
though I keep saying I am going to! But
it is still so cold! It is May and yet it is still 40 degrees in the morning
when I wake up. Do I even still live in
south Mississippi? I mean, I can’t
remember when I have ever had to wear a jacket in south Mississippi in May. Anyways.
My herbs. I’m so in love. I mean, I’m not an expert in the least bit,
but I am continually learning. First
off, my basil is doing a hundred times better since I moved it to its own,
bigger pot. I grew a basil plant last
year and have kept it alive all through the winter but it was seriously
struggling in its itty bitty six inch pot.
I began to look at it to see if there was anything I could do for it and
for some reason I had the thought of pulling the plant out of the dirt it was
in. Well when I began to pull it up, I
discovered that underneath the top soil was basically this muddy/wet sand
substance! I don’t know how this came
about, but that’s what happened to it.
Before I discovered that mess, I had already purchased another basil
plant, which I planted in a galvanized tub with oregano and cilantro. I found out that it did not like being
planted there. It was not doing well at
all either after a few weeks. I thought
I had allowed for enough room and sunlight to get to it but maybe I didn’t. As for now I have joined these two sickly
plants that were not doing well into one larger pot and even after one day I
could tell an improvement. Hopefully I
can make some basil tea with the leaves soon.
I am no expert in herbs so I have no idea when the right and perfect
time to prune is. Probably right now! Ha ha.
For basil tea I use my sweet basil.
Which is the basil I have been talking about. But I also have another type of basil called
cinnamon basil. I don’t really know what
to do with it yet. I mean, it smells
yummy and is both cinnamon and basil
which seems like a good combination. The
leaves taste kind of like licorice and I don’t know if I really like that or
not. I think it is time to prune
it. It is growing but very slow and I
have read several articles about beginner’s mistakes and that is not
pruning. It definitely goes against what
I want, I mean, to get your plant to grow more, you have to cut it back? That is the craziest sounding thing
ever! But it works. So I just grit my
teeth and go for it lol. On my cinnamon
basil, some of the stems are this deep purple and some of them are green. I don’t know what it means that they are
purple but usually those are the ones I cut and then try to propogate.
I have several more herbs I could ramble on about, but I
think I will save those for another day!
Basil Tea
Ingredients: - a pitcher of freshly
brewed tea (I like my tea sweet, but hey, it’s up to you!)
- 5-10 basil leaves
Instructions: Add
your basil leaves to the tea as soon as it is finished brewing. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes to an hour
for it to infuse the flavor. You can
then remove your leaves or leave them in depending on how strong of flavoring
you want! Pour into a glass and enjoy
your yummy basil tea :)
*I do have pictures of my herbs! I have figured out that my internet connection is too slow to upload pictures. Luckily I have a nice place I can go to get all this taken care of!