11 April 2006

Herb immigration

With all the news lately about immigration reform, I thought I'd move some Italian and Greek herbs around. Today, I transplanted the basil and oregano that I had purchased a couple of weeks ago as seedlings from Lowe's nursery. I've had them under the grow lamp in their own little pots but they were getting too big and I needed the lamp space for some more seeds anyway so across the border to a larger terra cotta planter they went. I mixed in about two cups of sand with each terra cotta to improve the drainage of the potting soil since herbs like a well-drained footing. The oregano will now reside in the window until it's safe to put them on the deck in the full sun for the summer where they'll be happy. I still had enough space to keep the basil terr cotta under the grow lamp but that may change soon. That last frost date can't get here soon enough.

I then re-used the plastic pots and grow lamp space to sow some more basil seeds in seed starting soil and put them under the lamp. We'll eat a lot of basil so I'm planning a third terra cotta planter from these seeds. I'll probably sow some directly in the garden as well just to see how it does. I've got a pack of oregano seeds but at this point, no more space to sow them so they'll just have to wait a while.

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