Basil

I’m learning a few new things about my favorite herb, basil! It great to make pesto out of, put in pizza and spaghetti sauce or add some variety to a sandwich and salads.

I planted a lemon basil plant this past weekend, apparently a little early for my growing region.  When I checked on it yesterday it leaves were wilted. It now needs some TLC so I did a little research. Basil should be planted outdoors late spring or early summer, or started indoors 4 to 6 weeks earlier. It can also be an indoor plant if placed near enough sun light and is kept warm. When the plant begins to bloom, you can pinch off the branch tips, and flowers to encourage more growth. My garden manual, The Edible Garden, suggests basil lemonades that sounds great!(p.112)

In a 2 qt pitcher smash up 1/2c fresh basil and 3 tbsp of sugar

Add 4c of water and 1/2c fresh squeezed lemon juice and pour through a strainer

Chill and serve, stays good up to 1 day

Mini Individual Green House

Just to heighten your trust in my garden skills let me start off by informing you of a recent death of three baby squash plants, who were sadly put outside two days prematurely and suffered from some slight frost and high winds. I am not sure why they call this city Stillwater, the water is always choppy from the high winds.

                These little squash babies did not die in vain though, I found a fantastic way to keep all their friends safe from the same fate. I dug through the recycle bin and found some plastic water bottles, quart milk jugs, and other plastic bottles. I removed the lids, and cut off the bottoms with kitchen scissors. These recyclable materials are now mini individual green houses for young and quickly growing (yea!) squash and cucumber plants.

compost

In the excitement of our garden this year I have begun to move past some seasonal depression from the nasty, unbearable, miserably cold and uneventful months of winter. We moved our compost pile from its winter location, a hole in the ground, to the perfect spring/summer composting system! It has more air movement and a better mix of food and dried yard waste. On the side of the road were two beat up pallets, just what I was looking for and for free! So I went home and excitedly told Dearest Husband about my idea for the compost bin I (…he) was going to make. We jumped in the truck and returned to the treasure spot, got the goods, and returned home. Of course we immediately got started on this project, I was still on my spring high from reading “The Edible Garden” and planning and planting this week. Side note for later: I was on a spring high, Dearest Husband was not.

We set the two pallets corner to corner to make two sides of a triangle. We then used chicken wire to construct the third side so that it can be easily opened each week to turn the pile. I put down a layer of hay and manure and then added all of the old coffee grounds, egg shells, fruit and vegetable peels, and other food wastes. I then added a light layer of dried leaves. I read in my new book that the yard waste and food waste should be a 1 to 1 ratio. So that put us at 1 ft tall already, only 2 more feet to go! Compost piles should be 1 cubic yard, three feet wide and three feet tall. It takes 3 to 6 months to be composted if turned every few days. We should have some good mix by July for the second planting!

We built this compost on a minefield though. I was enthusiastic to be outside, spending quality time with Dearest Husband working on a project that would make our garden more efficient and productive. Dearest Husband, who had been at work for 8 hours, who hates the 80 degree sun shinny weather, who is sweating from the hard work, who is shoveling half rotted food scraps, was not as excited about the project as I would have liked him to be. We got in a little tiff about how to reinforce the pallets at the corner, we took some pictures, finished the project and came in the house. Upon seeing the photo of myself and not being pleased with it I had a breakdown, at Dearest Husband. I was infuriated that he had not checked the photo to make sure I looked good, and I had already changed into clean clothes and there was no way I was going back outside to take another one. In Texas tradition I continued to be stubborn and made this small problem a little larger than it really was. I also added in through burning tears that Dearest Husband never wants to do things outside with me, and always complains when I have a project to do, that he never thinks about what I want to do. All of which are false because it only happens sometimes.

After I cooled off and forced myself to give Dearest Husband a hug I came to a conclusion. There is a learning curve in any relationship, neither he nor I are going to be great at reading each other all the time after only a year of being married. It would help if I would have communicated “hey, I have this idea for a new composting system and I would love to spend time with you making it right now”. It would have also helped had he said “hey, I am already tired, have homework to do, and it is still hot outside. Can we plan to do some other time this week?” But we live on earth, not a perfect planet so we went “sailing in the storms” and made it to the other shore in the end.