Basil Beauties

Every year, we grow basil near the front door. It's a nice, sunny spot, and I have an easier time remembering to water plants that I see every day. Once they're tall enough, the plants provide leaves for pasta dishes, tomato-mozzarella salad, and pesto sauce. Yum!

We usually start our plants from seed, but they've been sprouting and growing poorly lately. Last year we even had to take a "do-over" with seedlings from my mother-in-law the gardening whiz. I gave my sister the leftovers, and hers which were kept in a pot with my mil's dirt prospered while ours struggled after being transplanted.

That was the final straw/diagnosis, so this spring Len overhauled our little patch of dirt, adding manure and peat moss. As you can see, we still didn't get many sprouts (I haven't taken any out), but they look much better than some years. I did move a few around for a more even distribution. Marianna's grandparents gave her a garden angel for Christmas. Since her flower patch is thickly planted with tall specimens, she has graciously set the angel to look over the herbs.

Hopefully in a month I'll have a picture of the angel with much taller basil in front of her! To her left the chives and spearmint are visible. We've also got parsley, thyme, and peppermint. Most are perennials; we only plant the basil and parsley each year.