I just got 8 types of basils (seed packets) and haven't a clue as to where or what to grow them in. If anyone has any ideas that they can share I would love it. Was thinking of using those wine barrels for the basils. Was planning on starting indoors on heat mats until planting time.
Thank you for your time.
A.
Found two pics from last summer, both dated June 15th.
The other herb container:
Thank you Eggs,
They look so healthy. What a good idea to set them around each other, is that a raised bed back there? We plan on building some raised beds in a couple of weeks, we just had the lumber delivered and I'm hoping to set some pots around like yours.
Thank you.
Thanks, Gourd. The containers are called Mayan Planters, and yes that's a raised bed. Last spring was so wet I couldn't till my veg garden. I decided it was time to put it into raised beds. No more tilling and very little weeding (about once a month during the growing season). =) The only drawback I've seen is, now I don't have anything to do but wait until things warm up. *sigh* it's killing me. LOL
I keep two of the Mayan's for my herbs and a Strawberry jar with strawberries, scattered among the raised beds. By the end of the season, the herbs completely cover the planter, and makes for a nice display. Although, it requires a lot of water, once the plants are mature.
Good luck,
Eggs
Eggs,
Thanks for the photos and your help.. my dogs eat the strawberries, tomatoes and a few othe things.. I plant alot of treats for them..lol. especially the tomatillos and tomatoes, they love those and it helps to keep their weight down and they are alot healthier.. Plus I eat more than they do.. I am so anxious to start my herbs...
Thanks again.
A.
I tuck basils everywhere for the foliage and the scent... I love plants that are edible and ornamental! There's a great thread that I bumped up recently in the herb forum about using clay flue liners as herb pots... http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/605540/
With basils, remember that they need more water than most herbs. If you're new to starting them from seed, I put a few tips here, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/589725/
I love basil!
Oh critter, I love those ideas, especially the flue liners.. I've seen them somewhere in my trips looking for compost, rocks, etc.. would I be able to find them at a hardware store?
I like the clump transplanting too, I did that with Maximilliani sunflowers, it was so easy too.
Thank you.
A.
Hardware store might be able to order them... but a brickyard would probably have them in stock, in various sizes.
If you think those are useful threads, please comment on them on the feedback thread for the new resource "sticky" in the herb forum. I think we need to dig up the threads we'd like to be able to find and refer to easily and put them in the sticky! Thanks.
critter,
thank you, so far, I have not been able to find any here, but, will see if they can order some for me.. also, may take a trip to El Paso and see if we find some there.
You might contact somebody who does brickwork (patios etc) and see if they can direct you to their supplier...
This is the type of pots I will use for my herb garden this year... I just put dirt today in one, then got tired and stopped and will finish tomorrow... so here goes... of course the new one will not have my plants in it...LOL
Susan
Hi Susan,
I'm using the same type of potting system for some of my herbs. Those that didn' t make the "cut" (to go into the stackables) and the newest ones I've bought are being planted in variety of containers. I have my stackables filled with herbs. This was planted about 2-3 weeks ago. Some were leftovers from the fall, some were seeds, and some were new. I do have a passion for herbs these days. Not only for cooking with, but also for butterflies.
I used a label machine to label the stackables for quick reference until I learn what's what.
I've moved this hanging unit for the time being. It was definitely a head banger where I had it. Now it's on the walkway with the rest of my herbs.
I'll get some photos tomorrow of the rest of them.
Janet
what herbs do the butterfly's like?
yours is very pretty...
SUsan
Thanks Susan,
Don't get me to lying. I know that several species of butterflies use the herbs to lay their eggs on. Mainly Rue, Dill and Parsley. I'm fairly new to butterflying, so rather than give "definitive answers", and be wrong, I'll just say....there's a lot of information about host plants and nectar plants in the Gardening for Butterfly and Hummers forum > http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/bbb/all/ This thread in particular is all about planning an herb garden for butterflies. > http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/681001/. There are some really friendly folks that hang out there that can answer any questions you might have.
Susan and Unique,
oh boy, where did you guys get those containers? Those are pretty nice and would be nice to have near the kitchen.
I've called around a couple of places for the clay flues, one place gave me the name of a stove place that may be able to order them for me.
Thanks for the photos.
Hi,
I will just plant and see what comes... I got mine off of ebay but she sells private also.. now she is even on QVC... best bet is to bid you can get cheaper... she will combine shipping also and that is only 5 dollars... I now have 3 well almost 3 she did not ship all parts with the last two so I am waiting on that...
http://www.stack-a-pots.com/ hope that works... I dont know how to do the url thing..
Susan
I bought mine at Goodwill. Evidently someone either didn't know how to use it, or wasn't into gardening afterall. It still had the instructions and all of the parts. I think I paid $3-4 for it. I really got lucky on that deal. Definitely a neat concept and from what the instructions said, you water the top pot and it drains into the lower pots.
Here are some photos of my individual pots of herbs.
Janet
Oh you are very lucky we would never find something like that here for 3 or 4 dollars..... Your plants are just wonderful... Now do you use them to cook? I have never really used fresh herbs to cook... Also I have like 4 basils and others that have more then one do you think I could plant a little of each in the same spot?
Thanks for any help and once again so pretty...
Susan
Our Goodwill stores always have great deals on things that I just "can't live without". At least, that's what I tell myself when I bring home bags and bags of goodies. I'm a frequent visitor at most of the thrift stores in the area. I'd much rather go "treasure hunting" than spend any of my money at the retail outlets. :-)
I do use some of the herbs for cooking. Mainly the basil, parsley and chives. I had several sages (Mexican and Russian) last year. They haven't come back yet this year, but are showing signs of life now.
I'm always willing to learn more uses for using the herbs.
Last night I made a pizza. The pizza crust was already baked (generic store brand) and had a package of sauce with it. I put on a thin layer of mozzerella, then layered low fat pepperoni, thinly sliced crimini mushrooms, sliced black olives and a couple of sliced cherry peppers. I added another layer of Mozzerella and cut some chives on top. I love the flavor of onion on my pizza, but hate to bite of a waybigo hunk of onion that isn't fully cooked. In addition I sliced very thinly about 6 basil leaves and sprinkled some Italian Seasoning on top. Man oh Man was it good.
I've found that finely chopped herbs really do add "zing" to whatever I am cooking. Sometimes I have a hard time deciding what herbs to use though. I'm getting better at it, thanks to watching the Food Network. There are many herbs though that rarely ever get used on the Food Network, so I have no idea what to do with them. I'm not a big fan of cilantro. It usually tastes like dish soap in the red sauce from Mexican Restaurants.
Hope this helps.
Janet
Thanks for the tips...I have never seen in our Goodwill anything like the pots... I also go to them... one mans junk is another mans treasure :-)
Susan
I used to hit the goodwills in CA too, and all the thriftstores. will start checking them out here too, I'm not too familiar with the town yet, but do know where there are two thriftstores already..lol. There are great deals to be found there for sure.
I made some really thick porkloins, started them in about two cups of water, simmering on low heat, sprinked lots of rosemary, garlic, black pepper, oion and dried lemon peel.. (store bought seasoning) they cooked for about 4 hours on low and I added water if it needed some. never turning the pork at all, did not want for the seasoning to fall off. Close to DH coming home, I added tons of frozen yardlong green beans right in the center of the meat (I moved the meat to the ends) covered with lid and let that steam awhile, at this time I also added a little bit of olive oil to the center of the pan. Added a little garlic powder and salt to the greenbeans.
At first it smelled weird, but then it smelled quite tasteyl.. DH loved it. me too.
Boy, now I'm hungry.
This message was edited Mar 14, 2007 12:40 PM
That sounds YUM-O!!! (famous Rachel Ray word) I've done pork roast with that method. Just an inch or so of water and rosemary, salt and pepper and minced garlic. Cover with foil. It falls apart with a fork when cooked. I didn't have to add any more water. Just let it cook for hours. It was most delicious. Rosemary is also wonderful on Chicken, along with sage.
I haven't decided what to fix for dinner tonight and now with all of this talking, I'm already starving. I have a corned beef brisket, bought yesterday, and I think I'll cook it in the pressure cooker with some cabbage and onions. I plan on saving those waybigo leaves from the cabbage and making some cabbage rolls with them. I haven't made those in 20 years. I think I'll fix that tomorrow night.
Janet
ummm.. hungry here just thinking about your cooking Janet.
Critter,
I found a place that sells the flues.. only they were closed Saturday... will get them this week. THey have all sizes too, small, tall, short, big...etc.. it will make a very nice herb garden for me.
Thank you so very much for the links you gave.
A.
You're welcome! Be sure to seal them... there's been some discussion in that thread about the flu liners being hit or miss in terms of surviving winter conditions.
Alrighty, I was thinking of burying some and having some taller than others.
Thanks.
A.
Hiya,
Could you tell me what a flues is and what is it used for? thanks.
Susan
Flu liners are rectangular sections of terra cotta type material used to line the inside of a fireplace chimney.
Hi,
Thanks that is what I thought you all were talking about but was not sure...LOL
Susan
Susan, scroll up to my March 8 post for a link to another thread where the liners are discussed (with photos!).
Eggs,
Just wanted to show you our raised beds, they are finally finished, we just need the compost delivery...
A.
Holy Smokes, Gourd!
Those are "heavy duty"! =) You're gonna love those beds. Every day, I wish I would have built more than 4. Gotta have some play area, though. =/
Enjoy!
Eggs
Eggs,
Oh boy, it is going to take forever to fill them up. We just had the compost delivered yesterday. Then we will have the topsoil delivered today, along with 42 tons of crushed gravel for the walk ways around the beds. I can hardly wait. This area floods (so we were told) that is why so much gravel will go in here).. i don't think it floods but once in a blue moon, but that is what they told us when we bought the house in CA, and I'll be darned if we didn't flood four times in one year and also the next two years. (I'm a Believer)
So, we may as well get the gravel now..lol. Believe it or not, they do not sell decomposed granite here, so this will have to do until we inch along.
Critter,
We got our clay flues yesterday also... they are expensive, we got 6 total, 2 of each different size. Will take their photos when I figure out where to place them and I was wondering if you have heard of anyone cutting, sawing these in half, maybe with a diamond saw? I'd love to make them into smaller sizes and keep some tall. and also Double the amount of flues. I've been thinking about that one... I also got the sealer, will do that this week sometime.
thank you all for your wonderful ideas.
A.
Sorry, I have no experience with the flues or with sawing them... I would think they could be cut like tiles, but I'd be too nervous about breaking them.... also, a tile saw generally cuts wet, and it's really designed to cut flat tiles, not pots or flues.
Thanks,
These are 24 inches tall and you know that the bigger ones when turned on their sides make GREAT Benches..
A.
Hi Gourd...Just wanted a little container herb garden and this was my first attempt. It's gone crazy and I think a nice pesto sauce is in my future this weekend!
Hi Gourd,
Here's one from last year. It has mesclun, parsley, chives and violas for color. My balcony is north facing, but gets a little morning and late afternoon sun.
