graduation.
picture updates.

an herbal love affair {basil}

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!

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