Homemade Pesto

Since my basil plants were looking a little weak, I decided to do something with them while I still could since all of my plants have ended up dying once they started looking sick.

I cut down all of my plants but one and pulled off all the leaves. Releasing the smell of fresh, lemony, minty basil with each leaf I removed from the stalk was the best part. The process also made me a bit sad because I had to cut down the only thing I've ever grown and because it takes so long to grow compared to how long it takes to use up.

I don't have a recipe to share with you since I generally cook out of my head and by tasting things a lot as I go along. Here's the finished product, which will probably make 2-3 servings of pasta. I'm looking forward to dinner!

End of this year's basil season

December 29, 2006

Here's the last photo of my basil plants before I cut them down. They aren't quite as green as they used to be--even though it's been a very sunny winter, the days are still shorter and I'm sure that's affecting the plants.



Since they're starting to get more yellow than green and showing more signs of insect visits, I decided to cut down the plants and make pesto with them. I couldn't bring myself to cut them all down so I left the strongest one up for now.



Here you can see where a bunch of new leaves would normally be starting to grow, but they don't seem to be growing anymore. You can also see on the larger leaves where insects have visited the plant. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to affect the flavor and they're still suitable for grinding up for pesto, but I wouldn't be able to use them in a dish where the presentation of the leaves was important.

I'm looking forward to planting more basil next summer!

Lavender

I adore lavender, but my poor lavender plant has been around for 10 months and has barely grown at all. As tiny as it is, the foliage gives off a strong lavender scent if you touch it, but if I want to actually enjoy fresh lavender, I have to buy a bouquet at the farmer's market. Today I learned that lavender is in the same family as mint, and that there are a ton of different varieties, some of which grow into large bushes and others or which don't grow to be more than six to ten inches tall. The lavender I'm trying to grow is English lavender, but there are something like 40 varieties of English lavender, so I guess I should re-read the seed packet to learn the specific variety I'm growing and what I might be able to do better. I planted some more about 2 weeks ago, but lavender takes at least 35 days to germinate (last time it took around 60) so I have no idea how successful it will be yet. My guess is that, like everything in my garden, it won't get enough sun and it won't thrive. Hopefully PayPerPost will help me make back all the money I've blown on gardening supplies.

Genovese Basil

I thought I should do some research on the one thing that has grown rather well in my container garden to see if I what I learned would help me grow other plants successfully as well. Here are some things I learned about this variety of basil:
-It hates cold, which probably explains why my plant is starting to go downhill. I've noticed that recently signs of insect activity on my plant have increased. I plan to harvest all of the leaves soon and make pesto or something with them before they can be totally destroyed by insects.
-It tolerates partial shade. My balcony does not seem to get enough sun for most plants.
-It likes rich, well-drained soil
-It appears to help tomatoes and peppers grow better when they are planted together (haven't tried that yet--maybe this coming summer)
-It has few pests
Unfortunately, none of this new information really helps me understand why so many of my other plants have failed (such as arugula, which is also a part-shade plant).

Container Gardening

I talked to my dad today about my gardening woes--how, in short, basil is the only thing I've successfully grown out of the many different plants I've tried. He says that he thinks its difficult to grow plants in containers because it's hard to get the soil mix right. He is having trouble growing plants because the neighbors' trees create a lot of shade and his plants can't get enough sunlight anymore. My dad is a longtime home gardener and while it's never something I was particularly interested in growing up (I didn't like vegetables until I was 18, which had a lot to do with my lack of interest I'm sure) but it seems like my genetic destiny has caught up with me.

Garden Update

About a week and a half ago I planted some more sage and lavender. Lavender takes forever to germinate, so I'm not seeing any signs of that yet. The sage has started to germinate and is about the size of my arugula seedlings that I planted two months ago which haven't grown at all. The first time I tried to grow sage and lavender I started them indoors in small containers in late winter/early spring. This time, I'm starting them outside in full size containers in early winter. We'll see what happens.

Making pesto from home grown basil

My basil plants have produced so much basil that I can't find a use for it, so I decided to make some pesto. I was a little disappointed that using fresh basil from my garden didn't make the pesto taste any better than using fresh basil from the store. It was more satisfying, though. I harvested enough leaves to make enough pesto for two people. I didn't want to take too many lest my plants feel naked.

Leek update

My lone leek plant is still getting bigger but I wonder if it will ever grow large enough to eat. I have learned that plants can barely hang on for a long time without really growing to the size they are supposed to.

Here you can see my dead pea plants. There is some fresh green growth at the bottom of the plants but experience has shown that the new growth will probably not amount to anything productive.


One pot of my pea plants is somewhat more alive but I'm sure it will end up the same way. However, I didn't pinch off the flowers in this pot to see what would happen. It looks like I may end up with a couple of peas.