Don't you just love the smell of your hands after working in the garden?
I've never really thought about it before... but just now, after tending to my vegetables and herbs and taking some photos of them, I sat here with my hands beneath my chin, thinking of words to write, when this lovely scent just enveloped me.
Basil. So much scented basil.
Speaking of basil!
Here is my large-leaf basil, being not particularly large or leafy. In saying that though, I did chop off a substantial bit of them during the past couple of weeks to fulfil some tastebud desires.
I'm hoping that since spring is practically at our doorstep, my basil will improve a bit. The zone that I live in is meant to be great for all-year-round growing, but this year was a bit iffy. Normally, in this region, winter nights don't go lower than 10 Celsius and the days like to hover around 25. This year we've had many frosty mornings around zero and quite a few days that didn't get warmer than 15.
I like to think that despite the odd weather, my plants are doing well. They didn't die at least!
I also recently planted some sweet basil. They're fighting through the odd weather we're getting also and I'm very happy they're surviving.
Here's hoping both the large-leaf and sweet basil explode in a mass of basil goodness as the weather gets better for them!! 😊🌿
Growing behind my large-leaf basil are a heap of roma tomatoes!
Once again, I like to think that considering the weather was odd this winter these tomatoes are doing pretty swell.
I've counted 10 little baby roma tomatoes growing so far and I'm hoping for tonnes more!
I buy far too many tomatoes from the shop and once these little guys are ready they will be thrown into many curries, sauces, guacamoles, casseroles, sandwiches and wraps! And probably some other things. These tomatoes are the one thing out of my newbie garden that I was hoping would grow and flourish, and here they are!
May spring treat them better than this off-winter did.
Now! These garlic chives are driving me bonkers.
This is a herb that I've tried to kitchen-window-sill grow before, all to result in death and failure within a month. The ones in this post have survived for a few months! So much better than previous attempts. But... they're not flourishing.
Perhaps spring will also be kinder to them.
I was pretty miffed actually, because we went to one of our local parks a couple of weeks ago and guess what they were using as a decorative edging plant in one of the sections? None other than garlic chives! I was so tempted to grab some scissors and chop a chunk for my own use. But no. I didn't. I will wait (impatiently) for whenever my own actually grow.
During the past couple of months I've had a bit of a pest problem, but some organic pesticide and crushed eggshells seem to have done the trick for now.
There was a time when this silverbeet only had three leaves, two of which nibbled beyond recognition. He's recovering nicely! I've planted a couple more beside him too, and they seem to be doing well at the moment.
And here we have some lovely, lovely marigold, flowering very nicely.
I actually have these in a couple of pots! Planted at the exact same time. They all get the same amount of watering, they all have the same soil, they all get the same amount of sunlight... and yet... this pot was the only one to thrive.
The others... well, all of them sprouted at the same time, but while this pot's seedlings grew and grew, the others grew then vanished and have currently resprouted.
I have no idea why or how that happened... hopefully these little seedlings survive. I love marigolds and it's even nicer to know that they're beneficial for vegie gardens.
In my last proper garden update, I spoke about my carrots and how, being a complete garden newb, planted multiple carrot seeds per hole thus squishing their little carroty goodnesses.
I learned from my error and have planted some new carrot seeds! This time only one seed per hole.
They popped up pretty quickly too! 🙂 I like to think that these ones will actually be sizeable! 😅
I also have a tonne of spring onions growing nicely; I've been using them a lot in my cooking lately! And I have a few brocolli.
There's a bit of a funny thing with my brocolli, actually. I had no idea that they take two years to grow!! Woops... here's hoping this newbie gardener can keep them alive for that long......
🌿 😬 🌿
Oh yes the fragrance of basil can send me too! Coupled with tomatoes, there's a match!
Good luck with the carrots. I'm a newbie too, and have never tried carrots. The only root veggie I've tried is radishes. Those that came up were delicious, but I didn't get many.
Is silverbeet also called swiss chard? Looks the same. My yellow variety has been struggling something awful, but the red is doing quite well.
The following image is a photo my partner took of one of my carrots, whilst cackling maniacally.
My son even got in on the action! I brought in all of my baby, squished-together carrots, pointed at them and frowned, and my son rushes to the laptop, opens youtube, types in, "How to grow carrots" and proceeds to thrust all these videos in my face. 😅 Thanks, kid.
Yes! I think Silverbeet is Swiss Chard. I have some red ones growing next to this yellow one. Well, they were from packet seeds called "rainbow silverbeet" and I have to say that the picture on the packet looked a lot more rainbow than what I'm getting. Still. Nom!
haha I see where Jenny and Joey come from!
Ahhh yes, the scent of basil is indeed heavenly! I also love freshly cut mint - ohhhhmmmyyyygggoooodness lol :D <333 Good luck with your broccoli :)
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I haven't yet smelt freshly cut mint! Actually, I need to grow some of that too! There's so many things I want to grow but not enough room to have them all. 😅
Thank yoooou! I'm going to need ALL the luck with the broccoli!! 😄
I love the smell of my finished compost! I always find myself putting my nose up close to it, and take a big whiff lol
Basil and tomatoes.. a marriage in HEAVEN. I cannot WAIT to grow basil again and thanks for the reminder to grab some seeds. This year I want to grow twice.. Ten TIMES as much.
Bloody garlic chives.. I have gazillions. They self seed all over the place. Delish in eggs though!!!
Mmmm scrambled eggs,garlic chives, fried tomato and basil.. mmmm ...
Sounds like your garden is being a real source of joy!
Yessssssss, you must grow ALLLLLLL the basil!!!
😮😲
I wish mine would! Haha! Those things are my bane. They're delicious, but they're not growing and allowing me to eat them. I am forever cursed to be unsuccessful with garlic chives.
I love the smell of basil! Though I never had the actual plant (I just have the crushed herbs bought from store). Just wondering, does it smell too even if it's not dried or crushed?
It most certainly does!! 😃 Just touching the fresh plant leaves, without tearing them or anything, leaves this wonderful basil smell on your hands! And being near them, breathing them in, it's so delightful. 😊
Apparently the smell is more distinct when dried, though. I'm not too sure about that personally though, I haven't used dried basil before.
Whaaaaaaat that's so cool :o Love your garden btw, hope they continue going pretty :D
Thanks! 😄
I'm only a newbie with my garden and I don't know what I'm doing, but things are staying alive so that makes me happy! 😅
Ahhh yes, the scent of basil is indeed heavenly! I also love freshly cut mint - ohhhhmmmyyyygggoooodness lol :D <333 Good luck with your broccoli :)
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