Saturday, July 28, 2007

Balcony herb garden update No.1

As I've said many times before, I really enjoy growing herbs and I can't imagine my balcony garden without them. They keep good company to my veggies and keep my urban home free of flies and mosquitoes. Not to mention the fragrance and the taste...hmmm!! If you love to cook like I do, you'll be sure to find some space for a little herb garden of your own!
You could see from my previous post that my purple basil is growing just fine and is constantly rewarding us with fresh basil leaves. However, I have some additional young basil plants growing in a small container waiting to get transplanted.



I like growing more plants of the same variety, as well as more varieties of the same plant specie. Not only because of a greater harvest, but because that gives me the opportunity to experiment and learn the specific needs of each plant variety I grow. My green basil variety has given us a significant amount of fresh leaves for the past few months. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the variety in question, but I bought it anyway. The old lady that was selling plants at the local market really seemed to have a green thumb. All of the plants she was offering were looking happy&healthy and she was very kind to share some great gardening tips. When I buy my plants, I tend to do it from local gardeners. There are several reasons I do this, but the most important are supporting the community and creating real human relations. Big up for green thumb granny! Well, back to my basil plants! Here are a few smaller plants that I intentionally left to flower, because I would like to have some seeds of this particular variety for the next year.



Here's another flowering herb from my garden and also a very rewarding one. It's a Mint variety I like to use in some dishes, but it's especially great in all kinds of beverages. It's a pretty invasive plant that tends to fill out your garden space very quickly, but constant pruning&harvesting will keep them in control. Take a close look at these photos, behind my Mint plant and you'll see that there are a lots of other herbs growing in my garden!



Even if you couldn't recognize any of the herbs from my somewhat lousy photos, I'll be posting more on those in my Balcony herb garden update No. 2.! For now, I'd like to show you another Mint variety I grow on my balcony. This plant makes a great tea, of course sweetened with some Stevia Rebaudiana leaves(the second photo)!



Enjoy your herbs!

2 comments:

Zut Alors said...

Beautiful mint flowers!

You are encouraging me to plant some more herbs although I can never seem to keep basil alive.

I have never pinched off the flowers however, and I can't wait to start again.

I have however been panting the ends of green onions, and they seem to be establishing themselves well. Have you ever tried to recycle your groceries?

Italman said...

Hey,
from my experience basil is not so hard to grow, so be free to ask me for some tips if you decide to plant it again. I'd be glad to help in anyway I can!
Regarding recycling, I'll be posting some of the stuff I do very soon!
Stay green!