Supermarket basil hack, harvesting for maximum leaves, houseplant babies and hotbin woe!
Hello friends!
Thank you all so much for your messages this week - I love having you as pen pals! A couple of you have asked for my recipe for broccoli dhal and I was going to put it in this newsletter, but it's already WAY too long, so I'll send it to you guys individually, and if anyone else wants it, then just shout!
My five minute gardening forays this week:
Monday: I divide a pot of basil that I got from the supermarket. This is a really simple way of having your basil and actually getting to eat it too... The thing either gets completely demolished in one go, or it gets forgotten about, and dies without your permission - sound familiar? I've done this a couple of times on Instagram stories, but if you missed it, some instructions below. Top tip: cover the surface of the compost with a layer of horticultural grit - it really helps to keep the basil from drying out and it also prevents whitefly and fruit flies from congregating.
Tuesday: My Pilea piperomoides has had lots of babies. I've been meaning to remove them from her and put them in their own pots for months, but a combination of laziness and lack of confidence (I am a pilea virgin) has been holding me back. Whilst five minute gardening and laziness are very happy bedfellows, lack of confidence really isn't something a five minute gardener can afford to indulge, so I take a deep breath, watch a youtube vid and cut the little babies from their mother, plunging four of them into multi-purpose compost laced with perlite, and the remaining two directly into water. I will let you know how it goes!
Wednesday: I have to have an injection in my heel to stop my ankle hurting. My kids barely get fed. No gardening.
Thursday: I spend most of the day driving to Kent and back for a meeting, and by the time I get home, going outside feels, like, COMPLETELY out of the question, but then as I stare out into the grey rain I remember a comment from one of my Instagram friends, Jude - something about starting from the back door.
My eyes pick the thing that is nearest to me that needs doing - a pot of frosted, gone-over pelargoniums which need yanking out and composting. I get them out in a matter of seconds, and the scent makes me happy. I'm so glad I came outside.
Friday: I spend five minutes poking around in my compost bin, which is supposed to be a HOT bin; the perfect environment for all those lovely little microbes to do their important work of breaking down my garden and kitchen waste, and creating beautiful garden compost at the end. Unfortunately things aren't quite going to plan. I got this thing back in October, and haven't been able to get it to heat up since. Granted, I haven't really been trying (put off by the feeling that it's demanding far too much from me...there's a line, you see, with me and the amount of commitment something needs, and the hotbin continually crosses that line. I am persevering though, simply because it is now THERE. I poke around, hearing sounds of rustling, and also squelching. Neither of these sounds are good ones. The squelchy sounds mean that I haven't mixed my kitchen waste with enough cardboard etc, and the rustling sounds mean that I haven't mixed my twiggy waste with enough soft sappy leafy waste...blah blah blah. I shut the lid firmly. Head in the sand.
Dividing supermarket basil
An easy way of getting lots of basil fast, without having to buy multiple packets (in multiple plastic pots). You can do this any time of year as long as you've got adequate light.
You need:
1 pot supermarket basil
3 small pots to divide it into - I use terracotta because it's pretty but anything will do, as long as it's a proper pot with drainage holes
Ordinary multi-purpose compost
Horticultural grit (optional but RECOMMENDED!)
Just remove the basil from its plastic prison. You'll see all the roots filling the compost - that's because what you have here is loads of little basil plants fighting for space, light and nutrients.
Gently pull the plants apart from the base, dividing the pot roughly into three. Be gentle but don't worry if you break roots - that's inevitable and the plants won't be harmed. You can, if you wish, go further and keep dividing these clumps into even smaller ones, so that you end up with two or three seedlings per clump - this will ensure an even better life-span for the plants - but I usually just go with the thirds thing, because I only ever have five minutes.
Fill you pots up with compost, make some holes, and carefully plant your clumps, or individual seedlings into them, either in the centre or around the outside of the pot. Back-fill with more compost, firm it in, and water the whole thing in the sink, until you can see water coming out of the bottom of the pot. Now put a thick layer of horticultural grit over the surface of the compost. This does a truly fabulous job of deterring white flies and fruit flies which are attracted to damp soil, and it also prevents evaporation from the surface of the compost, so your pots are less likely to dry out. Put the three pots on a tray and keep them by a window.
Harvesting basil properly will ensure its longevity, so please read this below!!
Leave the plants there for a week or so, until you see that they have recovered (lush leaves and no floppy stems!) Your first harvest should be to pinch out the tips of each stem, to just above a pair of leaves (see below).
You can now make pesto or whatever. Pinching just above a pair of leaves will spur them into growth, and you'll get more leaves, making the plant bushy rather than lanky. Next, harvest large leaves individually. Doing this will open up light to smaller ones underneath, and it will spur the little tiny baby leaves within the leaf axils (the space between the main stem and the leaf stem) to get growing. You can see these tiny little ones in this picture below.... You're going to remove the tip first, then the two giants either side, and then these babies will start to grow.
Hopefully you can see now that harvesting with a bit of thought, rather than just snipping at the plant willy nilly will keep your plant growing for the longest possible time. There will come a point at which your plants will be exhausted, and you can start the process again, but if you harvest with care, this can be months down the line.
All the good things, always, and please keep hitting reply whenever you want to chat - I love it!
xx Laetitia