Good start - Genovese Basil

I love pesto, and have made small batches over the years. My late husband didn't care for it at all, so it had limited exposure to the dinner table. Now that I'm on my own, I'm growing more basil. 

The first seeds have sprouted and are doing quite well. It's going to hurt my heart when it's time to thin them as I move them to larger cups to continue growing. 

I have a second tray of the Dark Opal basil and it too is doing well, but is a good week behind the Genovese. I staggered sowing the seeds intentionally, and have one more seed packet to sow. I hope to have a lot of basil growing in my garden this summer. 

The weather has been a mixed bag so far in March. Of course it has! It's March! But I was able to get the new Greenstalk filled with potting soil and cultivate the two end raised beds.

I left leaves on the raised beds over the winter so I could cultivate them in. They'll slowly decompose and feed the soil. Then I sprinkled bone meal, blood meal, garden lime, and a general pellet fertilizer on top and used the cultivator to mix that in. That should give me a good starting medium for tomatoes, basil, and other herbs. 

And that's about all the weather allowed me to accomplish. I didn't get the leaves raked off strawberry bed, but that's next. March is a fickle month. We had a stretch of sunny days with temperatures in the low to mid sixties (Fahrenheit) and then the weather quickly reverted back to chilly and damp. 

No matter. Every thing done is one thing done, eh? 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, Greenstalk, soil, Genovese Basil, rural living, country lifestyle, weather watching, raised beds, garden planning, herbs, KC Kendricks

Sprouts!! Lookee lookee!

 It's official! My 2025 garden is growing. Seeds have sprouted! 

It's not much at the moment. Two green cabbage varieties and one red, plus one of the basil seed packets. It's a lot more cabbage than I'll need, but I can give some away when the time comes. My cousin next door likes cabbage and Cole slaw so there we go. 

As for the basil, this is just a start. I love pesto so the plan is to make a BUNCH of it this year and freeze it. I used the last of what I made in 2024 months ago, so I need to be on it this season. 

I'm ready to begin work in my garden but the weather is not helping. It's chilly and windy outside - not the weather I want to work in outside. But it has not stopped me from planning my garden and making a "plan of attack" to ready the raised beds, refresh the grow buckets, and set the second Greenstalk in its 2025 location. I also have a new greenhouse to set up and I need to move the old greenhouse frame to a location where I can zip tie shade cloth to in later in the year when the plants need a break from the solar maximum. 

Today is the day we set our clocks ahead before we go to bed, and I'm looking forward to longer daylight in the evenings. That will help me get things done. There's more on that over a Between the Keys. 

Things to do, things to do, but I think the only thing I'll really accomplish on this windy afternoon is some writing. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor/The Hideaway

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, gardening, rural living, cabbage, basil, greenhouse, country lifestyle, garden planning, organization, a writer's life, KC Kendricks