Potting Up the Basil

The basil cutting has really grown a lot of roots over the last couple of days, so I decided to get it into a pot today.

I found a cute little pot with a built in saucer that I thought would be perfect for the kitchen window.

I covered the bottom with a few marble chips and, with the basil cutting centered in the pot, filled the pot with soil. Et voila! Even Bali seems impressed!

And don't worry, Bali has learned through the magic of "Bitter Yuck" to only smell, not taste, the plants.

Basil Cuttings

I saw an episode of Rebecca’s Garden in which she described how to bring herbs like basil in for the winter. I have a pot of basil on my back stairs, so I decided to try growing cuttings from it. I don’t have many jars around as I’m an avid recycler, so I found some cute little vases at IKEA to use. Aren’t they pretty?

I did just as Rebecca instructed by cutting a piece of the basil plant, stripping off the lower leaves, and simply keeping them in water until roots begin to appear. Every day I checked them, changed the water, and saw…nothing. She didn’t mention how long it would take to see root development. I was beginning to think my experiment in preserving plants through cuttings would end up exactly like my pot of chives…nothing. Then, this morning I inspected the vases, and found little roots, and not just a couple, a LOT!

Now for the next step…pot them up and keep them alive. If this works, we’ll be having my famous Bolognese sauce, loaded with basil of course, all winter. Stay tuned…