The herbs, they are a'growing

After one of the worst nights I've spent in a long time (there was so much thunder even Harper was shook up. She actually got off her beloved chair and came in to sleep with us a couple times, even though the room was hot because the power was off. This is unprecedented) and a morning waking up to flash flood warnings -- which I now take seriously -- and the tornado siren going off, it's a bit of a relief to write about plants. Nice, green, soothing herbs.

You may remember how excited I was that the basil plants spouted . This is what they looked like in early March:


Then the parsley came up. And then I threw the parsley out because it couldn't support the weight of it's own leaves. The basil, unlike the parsley, turned out ok. The stems were a little weak at first because they had been growing inside and weren't really getting enough light. Only this week, after being outside for at least a month and a half, I'd say, has the basil really straightened up and started growing like crazy. Here are some pictures:



That's one of the basil. Although I'll probably use a few leaves here and there throughout the summer, I plan on waiting until fall and harvesting all the plants, then making a bunch of pesto and freezing it. I wanted to get a picture with something that would show how big they are, and Harper was out there with me, but she's a little camera shy and kept running away. This is her hiding on the swing. If you click on the picture, you'll zoom in and can really see the look of concern on her face.



I finally got her over to the basil.



And then she started hamming it up by looking really cute.



And then I realized that Harper's abnormally huge head is not necessarily the best thing to use a size reference.

As for the parsley, I just bought some seedlings at the market. I got three seedlings, which is MORE than enough parsley for us. I'm going to use some of it to make dog treats for Harper to make her breath smell good. Although the basil really needs the sun -- the best ones are those in the strongest sun, and the ones in part shade aren't doing well at all -- the parsley doesn't seem to care that it's in the shade. I put it on the table because some murderous bunnies attacked the parsley when I first got it. It recovered and looks none the worst for wear now.



I accidentally killed the mint trying to get rid of some aphids, but I think it's for the best because what I REALLY wanted was spearmint instead of just plan old mint, so I got some to replace what I had killed. The plain old mint might come back after all, I'm not sure. We'll see. This is also on the mostly shaded table. Seems to like it.


I don't know how the tomatoes and swiss chard are doing. I haven't gotten around to trying the chard yet. The tomatoes, although they're growing, are not nearly as big as Suz's, which are already making tomatoes. Maybe I just got late producers?



I think I would say that if you want to grow parsley, start with seedlings, and you really don't need more than two or three, unless you really love parsley. Basil is nice, too. Basil needs the sun, I don't think parsley does.