Basil round 2 started bec several of round 1s dried out due to not enough watering and being in vermiculite

^^^

Basil started

^^^

GA/BY: Harvest so far (seems puny)

Here's what's been harvested so far this year:

kale

chard

broccoli (including a nice head of Belstar tonight)

basil (not a lot though)

stevia

peppers -- mostly jalapeno or hungarian sweet, not a ton -- and all pepper plants look kinda pathetic

garlic scapes from the few garlics that produced scapes

No zucchini yet, though looking at last year the first was July 4th, and this year a few are on the way so it's not that far behind.

Basil started -- for real this time! (forgot it on April 6th)

Somehow I forgot to actually start the basil on April 6th!  So started it today.  Prospera (same as recent years).   -----> Update on April 17th 2025:  Oh!  I think the April 6th seeds WERE basil after all, not round 2 of broccoli!  So, looks like I'll have these two rounds of basil.

Started tomatoes (many varieties), ground cherries, and zinnias -- MEANT TO DO BASIL TOO BUT FORGOT UNTIL APRIL 12TH

Zinnia:  The usual mix of short and tall, and the last of the yellow store-bought.

Ground cherries:  The packet bought a few years ago.

Tomatoes:  All the varities I have except for Scotia. So this includes, by memory:  

- Damsel

- Big Tofu Plus

- Mortgage Lifter

- San Marzano (my first time trying these)

- Jasper

- can't remember what else

GA: Big planting-out day -- part 1 (to be continued tomorrow)

The cool nights (<~12) seem to be over now, so planted out a bunch of things today.  Ran out of time, so will do the rest tomorrow.

Tonight these went in:

- Tomatoes (Damsel, Mortgate Lifter, Beefsteak, Big Beef Plus) (~10 plants)

- Ground cherries (~11 plants)

- Peppers (The ones I started at home, and the ones I bought at the store)

- Summer squash part one (more to be done tomorrow)

- Basil

First basil harvest (/pruning)

A nice harvest with the first pruning of these 18 plants!  Had them on noodles with nutritional yeast and onion top trimmings.

Tomatoes, ground cherries, basil, and zinnias started in PT

Tomato:

- Damsel -- new to me this year

- Tofusteak

- Big Tofu Plus

- Mortgage Lifter

Ground cherry:

- Collected from a past plant that self-sowed and grew amazingly in very poor conditions

Basil:

- Prospera

Zinnias:

- Short yellow, short orange

- Tall variety

- Tall Lemon

Basil started rotting in the fridge after only a day or two!?!?

So weird.  A couple of days ago I harvested some basil; didn't wash it, just put it into a plastic container in the fridge.  Then today when I went to use it, several leaves had turned black / rot-y.  Most of it was fine, so I tossed the bad ones (and won't return them to the yard).  Not sure why this happened -- the plants in the garden look fine.

Basil looking a little sad -- transplant shock? Cool weather?

Nothing too drastic, just looking a bit yellow and not thriving.  They spent a long time in the pots.  Hopefully they'll rebound.

Basil transplanted; nights hovering around 11 to 13, so will cover basil when sub-12

I just felt like it was time to get them out of the little pots and into the ground.

Success with going away for a few days by bottom-wondering the basil under lights

It worked!  I put the basil that I haven't yet transplanted due to cool nights, in the black litter box bin under the lights (after pruning), with about 0.5" water at the bottom of the bin.  Got back 2.5 days later and the water had all been absorbed and the soil was damp.  So, should have been fine for another day or two.

Going down to +7 tonight (covering peppers only); this week will be +10 to +11 at night, so not transplanting basil yet

Put pots over the yard peppers (not the allotment peppers) but not doing anything else.

Great basil harvest -- and won't transplant until end of next week due to nights +8 to +11

I have several jars of pesto still left from last year!  So about to lap last year's harvest!

Will keep bringing them in at night when it gets below 13.

Allotment: Transplanted one basil

Just to see how it does.  On the south side, next to the stevia.  Cold nights coming up with Sat night +8 then the next several nights +10 to +11, so we'll see how it does.

Basils looking great so far! Drought conditions seem to be working. First pruning.

I've been diligently avoiding over-watering the basils in the hopes of avoiding the issues I had with basil the last two years.  I water them probably less than half as often as the other plants.  And so far, so good.  

Did the first pruning of the most advanced plants.

Started in PT (bowl for peas): Peas, zinnias, callaloo(/amaranth), basil, tomatox3

Peas:  Sugar Snap

Zinnias:  My usual mix -- this time all from 2018-collected seeds (to start using up the older seeds)

Basil:  Prospera (same as last year)

Tomato:  Mortgage Lifter (my first time growing this -- from La Ferme de l'Aube), Big Tofu Plus, and Jasper

Callaloo(/amaranth):  From the person at work.

House sparrows eating basil seeds! (dried on plant)

Must be quite the flavour punch compared to millet!!

The bought basil is getting blighty-looking spots on some leaves (not downy mildew)

Just a few leaves affected so far, otherwise the basil plants look good still.

Haven't seen any of these spots on my home-started basil (Prospera) yet.

No sign of downy mildew on any of the basils yet.

Basil growth slowing a bit, but no sign of downy mildew yet

^^^