Not to be confused with Spike Lee. 🤔
For the past few weeks, I had been using continuous watering spikes in 8 of my household plants, including the big leafy plants in my office, and the 3 main terra cotta pots containing the multiple basil plants still being allowed their growing spaces.
No longer. I had a talk with Max, (come on now. You know who Max is.) We decided that the spikes were what was causing a recent outbreak of fungus gnats in the basil plants in the living room. Ugh! I really don’t like bugs. And little bugs that fly, that you can’t swat to kill? Those most especially.
I discovered that said gnats A) love basil, and B) love continuously moist soil. Well, damn. I had both. In the same area. An open smorgasbord for the things. I was so excited by what I thought was good growth in both the office plants, and the basils. Not so.
The basil plants were inundated with the tiny varmints, eating more of the leaves than I was. That’s not fair, really. I was the one growing, and nurturing the plants, not them.
Out came the spikes.
I repotted all of the basil plants, culling a number of those that were “less” healthy looking than the others. (Culling anything can be difficult sometimes. Deciding which stays, and which doesn’t.) It had to be done. So, I did it.
I removed 8 plants that didn’t look like they were going to make it. I’m left with 7 plants, only 2 of which will probably survive the repotting experience.
I was able to harvest a whole 18g of leaves, and stems a week before this, which is how I even noticed the bugs. I made a micro batch of pesto, which tastes amazingly good. My first time making pesto. I hope I can have an abundance of basil this summer so I can try making other things with it.
My first attempt at making basil pesto with the very little bit of the herb I was able to harvest.
The middle plant will probably be one of the 2 remaining contestants that win the final round. Stay tuned.
Of these, I’m putting my efforts into the 2 pots on the right. Again, I’ll let you know. In the two smaller pots, next to the screen, are growing chives, and Greek oregano. In my efforts to grow “a bit more” oregano, I sprinkled “a few more” seeds in the soil, not sure if they’d germinate or not. They did, and there’s about 2 dozen of them.
I’m hoping they, too, will multiply enough to repot into a larger pot. I use oregano quite frequently, even on sandwiches.
Until next time plant enthusiasts, stay happy, and healthy in our Lord.