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kitchenelf

Chef Extraordinaire
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OK guys!!!! You know what to do :LOL: Remember to keep key words in your titles to make searching easier i.e.

Fertilizer
Herbs
Vegetables
Fruits

If you guys want to come up with some key serach words and I'll re-post them in this first post here I'll be glad to. I'll also be moving some threads here.

This forum may change locations i.e., will be in alphabetical order eventually.

Have fun!
 
Yay look what I woke up to!
how cool!
Thanks guys, that was some quick growing seeds!
 
yay!!!

i will be reading this category with great enthusiasm.

after all, new jersey is the "garden state"! (which translates to "my garden had better be bigger and more productive than my neighbors', or fuggedaboudit!)
 
oh, this is a big tease...

It's been unseasonably warm lately, and it feels like spring is around the corner. In actuallity, it's still humping along way down the street. Now I see this and know that my gardens are sound asleep.

Oh, to be in the garden now that 'this board' is here...
 
OK guys!!!! You know what to do :LOL: Remember to keep key words in your titles to make searching easier i.e.

Fertilizer
Herbs
Vegetables
Fruits

If you guys want to come up with some key serach words and I'll re-post them in this first post here I'll be glad to. I'll also be moving some threads here.

This forum may change locations i.e., will be in alphabetical order eventually.

Have fun!

Thought of a couple words,

soil
compost

-Suzi
 
Growing Basil

I was wondering how everyone keeps their basil growing nice and full. As soon as my basil starts growing well I will cut some of the fuller leaves off to use (just above a leaf node). It will continue to grow but it never gets that fullness again and the leaves are more spindly from then on and they are not quite as green as they were when they were new but paler in color.
Anyone have any tips for how to get my basil to bounce back nice and full and dense.
Is my soil lacking a nutrient? I know that nitrogen promotes foliage but I am more of an organic kinda girl and don’t want to use anything unnatural. Any suggestions would be welcome. I am in New England (zone 4)

I LOVE my basil to the point that I almost put it on my cereal………so I would really like to figure it out.:unsure:
 
I was wondering how everyone keeps their basil growing nice and full. As soon as my basil starts growing well I will cut some of the fuller leaves off to use (just above a leaf node). It will continue to grow but it never gets that fullness again and the leaves are more spindly from then on and they are not quite as green as they were when they were new but paler in color.
Anyone have any tips for how to get my basil to bounce back nice and full and dense.
Is my soil lacking a nutrient? I know that nitrogen promotes foliage but I am more of an organic kinda girl and don’t want to use anything unnatural. Any suggestions would be welcome. I am in New England (zone 4)

I LOVE my basil to the point that I almost put it on my cereal………so I would really like to figure it out.:unsure:

Welcome to DC!

Basil is so easy to grow from seed, plant enough seeds and you will have pesto for years. Is your basil in a pot, and do you overwinter it? I usually dig up a few plants and bring them inside to overwinter. They end up looking ratty as heck, but it's nice having fresh basil year round. Even though it's an annual, it will still overwinter, just not too pretty.

My advice would be to make successive plantings in a small garden plot.
 
Welcome to DC!

Is your basil in a pot, and do you overwinter it?

My advice would be to make successive plantings in a small garden plot.

Actually I have it planted in a large planter on my deck. I have also grown it in my raised beds the last couple years and I suspect my raised bed is just not deep enough. It is only 6 inches deep. I had wanted 12" sides on my raised beds but was talked out of it.....thats another story:rolleyes:

I do not have good luck bringing herbs into my house during the winter. I have tried but get those little white mites so I have given up on that.
I guess I will go to a local nursery and get some advice on natural products that might boost plant growth.

Thanks for your help though.
 
Actually I have it planted in a large planter on my deck. I have also grown it in my raised beds the last couple years and I suspect my raised bed is just not deep enough. It is only 6 inches deep. I had wanted 12" sides on my raised beds but was talked out of it.....thats another story:rolleyes:

I do not have good luck bringing herbs into my house during the winter. I have tried but get those little white mites so I have given up on that.
I guess I will go to a local nursery and get some advice on natural products that might boost plant growth.

Thanks for your help though.

Hmm. I guess I would keep snipping leaves and not worry about looks. I've grown sweet, Thai, lemon, purple, globe basil, along with others, and they've all survived a snipping.

12 inch sides on your planter may be better, you could stick some planks around it to make it deeper.
 
I find basil tricky.......whoever said it looks horrid during the winter months is singing my song........but lo and behold here comes spring and the herb is growing up between cement separations about 1/2" wide just as happy as it can be.......and acting out like a "weed".........go figure.......
 
Can't grow basil outdoors here, but I built a year-round greenhouse. So we have ripe tomatoes in every month of the year.

For basil, I use a plastic windowbox.

VfMmAzn.jpg


It's planted thickly. I harvest the biggest plants, which gives the smaller ones room to grow, and so on. I can usually get 3-4 cuttings per box.
 
That's great that you set that indoor greenhouse up! That's what made me start growing in hydroponics - having to have basil and Thai basil year-round! Some other things, too, but basil was what I had to have! I learned quickly that it grows so fast this way that I only needed one of each of the three varieties, and even this gave me more than I could use. And most of this was in Thai food, often calling for a cup or more of if at a time.

These varieties are shorter, bushier types, but the leaves get so huge using this method that they look like lettuce leaf basil! But they have so much more flavor.

When the outside growing starts, I clone the basils, to get plants for outside, and come September, I set it up again, and clone the basil again, to grow in the basement.
More basil than I can use! I actually have to remove 3 of the 6 plants, and replace them with other herbs, or greens. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This is what it eventually looks like, when overgrown.
Basils and a small parsley, in need of big time trimming! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 
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