The Hope of Basil
I know basil. I’ve grown it before in pots on my windowsill in Australia. I loved being able to snip off a bit of fresh basil for my salads and pasta. So this Spring, imagining all the lovely 24 hour sun we’d be having over Summer and all the lovely basil I could be eating, I planted some basil seeds in a pot and put them on the balcony. A couple of months later this is what was there…
…just one little seedling. And no matter how much love, how much sun or how much water this little fella got, he just didn’t grow. After four months he was no bigger than my thumb so I picked his biggest leaf and popped it in my mouth. And that was that.
I guess Tromsø is not meant to grow basil.
by in category Food & Recipes, Tromsø
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I loved how you ate it and that was that! I grow basil in a pot in my kitchen window but I guess it’s much warmer here in Arizona.
BTW, I have a blog award for you on Heart Choices today. It’s a fun one.
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from L-Jay:
Ooooo! I’ll have to check it out! Been a little behind in things lately – but I guess that’s ok since I have a really, really good excuse
.
Warm and no wind…..do you have a south facing window where you can sow the seeds indoors? Setting the basil outdoor before the air temperature at night is 13°c will stunt the growth (I know, stop laughing….does it ever get above 13° at night???) When I lived in both Germany and Connecticut, I had luck with using a big pot, covering it with black plastic for a week before sowing the seeds to warm up the soil, and making a sort of greenhouse out of thick clear plastic. I also used some water-filled contraptions from a seed company here in the states..
http://reviews.burpee.com/1031/103418/reviews.htm
and they worked really well. I’d be happy to send you some for next year!
Maybe you could try some smaller-leaved basil like globe or boxwood?
I wish it were easy to pop some in the post to you…I have TONS and TONS right now…don’t know what to do with it all!!!
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from L-Jay:
I saw on TV tonight a Norwegian in Trondheim growing these big beautiful basil bushes in his back yard. Apparently we can’t do that in Tromsø. However, now that you mention the little green house plastic-things… In Alta (real North) everyone has miniature greenhouses in their yards – even strawberry fields are covered in black plastic to attract the sun and keep the ground warm in Summer. Oh well, I’ll have to wait til next Summer to try again – we got our first snow of the season the other day and the air is chilly because the mountains are now white. Day temps are max 5 degrees C here …lol – nothing will grow in this weather
. But I’ll keep dreaming.
The greenhouse idea is a good one, and here in Denver inside, I keep clear plastic on the pot until the seeds are up. You might also try snipping the tops of the growing plant to make them branch out as you would with coleus. (Any coleus Down Under?) I once grew a basil “tree” in my window that way for three years (until I cracked a rib and forgot to water anything).