Mother's Day Herbal Gifts

There is no such thing as too many herbs!  The beauty of herbs is they can be grown indoors and outdoors without much effort.  If growing indoors the main requirement is light followed by proper watering.  Herbs tend to like to be on the dry side.  Many will grow nicely on a window sill or on the balcony.  A couple of our kids gifted me with two potted herbs for Mother's Day. 

The first potted herb planter consisted of five herbs planted in a cute planter suitable for indoors.  As the herbs get larger they can easily be transplanted outdoors.  The herbs in this pot are parsley, sage, oregano, thyme and rosemary from Freeman Herbs in Beamsville, Ontario.  Aren't they gorgeous?  The tag includes suggested ways of using the herbs.  Once the herbs outgrow this pot they can easily be repotted outdoors in the garden where they will flourish as perennial herbs or they can be repotted in larger containers for indoor growing.  Not only do they smell heavenly they are just so lovely to behold!

The second potted herb is a variety of basil called pesto Perptuo.  According to the tag this is the sweetest tasting basil of all basils.  It provides a good fall harvest and can overwinter indoors.  When it comes to basil there is no such thing as too much.  I love basil!  It's one of those herbs that even in the garden I'm constantly pinching to make the plant bushier while popping the pinchings in my mouth savouring the wonderful flavour.

There are several varieties of basil and quite honestly I would have one plant of every one of then given my druthers.  This herb when used fresh really adds that extra and in my opinion fresh is far better than dried so is well worth cutivating indoors during the winter.  Basil is an annual in our area so basil plants in the garden are brought in to overwinter indoors.  Clippings will root in water which is quite handy if you don't want to dig up plants in the fall.  Basil is best if you don't let it come to bloom so harvest leaves often.  Pinching will result in a bushier plant.  It does grow well indoor and outdoor plants overwinter well indoors as well.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
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