On 10/18/2016 9:35 AM, songbird wrote:
Ecnerwal wrote:
...
I had intended to try harvesting basil a lot earlier and spare myself
the late autumn pesto madness this year, but I determined that I need to
plant a lot closer (and more plants, but I had the more plants) for that
to be practical here - when I looked at the "early harvest" I was
looking at robbing the cradle for my 9" spaced plants. I'll try them at
4" next year and it might be reasonable. Another side goal of harvesting
early is to possibly skip the leaf-picking (tedious, slow) and just grab
the plants before they get woody, and grind the whole plant.

we're not basil growers/eaters that much. if
it gets used it is very lightly done so the dry
version works ok for us. i doubt we'd use a
single plant's worth in a year. Ma doesn't like
much from the mint family.

i had a lot of squash that needed to be cooked
up and frozen (some were starting to get fungi on
them or had lost the stem already or ...). also
ate a few which were yummy.


Once things freeze off pretty well I'll get back to a bunch of things
that were sacrificed for the sake of other concerns this year and see if
next year will be better as a result - the whole thing needs to be
re-done, hopefully the last set of path changes, renew the fence, haul a
lot of horse-poop.

dig a deep hole and scrape the surface debris into
that and bury it. keeps a lot of weed seeds from
germinating. when you stir it up again some may
sprout, but the worms will eat some of those seeds.
i have a few useless pathways i'd like to get rid of
but i keep getting overruled on that.

have to remember to get the garlic planted.


songbird

We planted basil when we moved here in 2012, have not had to plant
anymore. We pick regularly, dehydrate and jar up, then we pick again and
again, then they go to seed just before cold weather. When spring
springs the basil starts growing again. Still looks the same and tastes
the same.

We found an earthworm a while back, not another one since. We put the
one captive into the raised bed and hope it will make more.

George