Sunday, June 04, 2006

What's Growin' On: 6/4/06



Realization Of The Day:
This is the downside to direct seeding.

Yes, there really are Oriole Orange Chard and Nero di Toscana (also called Black Palm Tree) Cabbage seedlings somewhere in there among the weeds. (The beautiful baby Nero di Toscana leaves are wonderful in salads, as are the baby chard leaves, of course.) I realize that this is partly my own fault, as that thick and extremely healthy looking lawn coming up in my raised bed is no doubt due to my amending the soil with lots of sheep manure and bedding hay from the barn. But still.



That grass grows so fast, I was afraid to let the seedlings get any taller before trying to do any weeding. But I don't have the patience for this kind of work, and by the time I was maybe halfway done, I was gnashing my teeth and pulling up way too many of the cabbage seedlings along with the grass.


Fortunately I had a little tranquilizer to help keep me calm.

And there was also an upside to this sad scenario. . .



Realization #2:
Volunteer basil seedlings were hiding in the weeds!

This is fabulous news because the basil I finally got around to starting in containers a few weeks ago isn't even this big yet. And I simply cannot have a garden without basil!

9 comments:

  1. I have a secret to share. Last year I planted some basil seeds and while I was waiting for a crop from them, I bought a couple pots of the hydroponic basil at the grocery store and after I'd picked them over I decided to put them in a spare corner of the garden to see what would happen and they went nuts, producing plants about eighteen inches tall and I still have two quart jars of dried basil left from them.

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  2. I nominate the above for the run-on sentence of the century. I am so embarassed.

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  3. In praise of basil, tonight I made pesto from the garden - truly heavenly.

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  4. Run on sentences are allowed and completely understandable when the topic is something as exciting as basil! ;-)

    Was the hydroponic basil the stuff I've seen Wegmen's in Rochester-area, NY selling - no soil, just bare roots? Whenever I visit my folks in Penfield I get sooo jealous of their Wegman's stores! Our Giant Eagles rarely have fresh basil, and when they do it's often just incredibly wilted and crammed in a flat container that's crushing the leaves.

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  5. There's soil, a little ball of it. Isn't Wegman's great?

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  6. Oooh--I've gotten that kind of basil before--found it in Harris Teeter in Arlington, VA--but haven't seen it here in Iowa yet. Still, now that I have two basil plants going, I'm hoping I'll have no problem getting plenty of basil for harvesting.

    Genie
    The Inadvertent Gardener

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  7. I bought some nero seeds for my sister when I was in Italy, I was wondering what they are called in english, thanks!

    You can always juice it all up, grass and all for a healthy drink, right?!!

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  8. okay i'm new to this gardening thing - i had a few basil plants last year and they pooped out on me. lo and behold, i go to re-stock my little container garden and i find a couple basil plants growing in the container that the pepper plants used to be in. so - my question is: is that volunteer basil? because it "volunteered" to come up this year?

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  9. i bought 4 basil plants to tide me over until the seeds i planted came through. 2 in a container, 2 direct in the garden.
    the two container basil plants did not last. i ate them up in tomato basil sandwiches and salad. so sad. but my basil is now flourishing in the garden, so hopefully it will last me, along with the little plants, all summer.

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