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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 205111" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>I did know about using walnuts instead, for pesto - but they have a bitter undertaste and I'm the only one in our family who can tolerate the bitterness. Everyone else is extremely sensitive to bitter tastes in anything.</p><p></p><p>Growing basil - I found the biggest killer of basil plants was lack of water. I grow mine in pots, with an ice cream container as a saucer and water reservoir. I bought one over-planted pot from the nursery and used a big 4 litre plastic ice cream container to sit the pot plant in, I often had to fill it twice a day.</p><p></p><p>The other thing you need to do, is keep pinching out the first signs of flower heads. Once you let it flower, it will set seed and die. But you can only postpone flowering for so long - once the stems begin to go woody, you may as well let it flower so you can harvest the seed to plant next year. One year I kept picking off the flower heads for too long and it never flowered, so I never got the seed. It just died off anyway.</p><p></p><p>We have a warm wall which faces north (the equator side, for us). I had a basil plant along that wall that I kept going through winter and through the following summer.</p><p></p><p>But I've found water is the big secret for my garden tis year - I'm careful to not overwater, but I suspect in the past I haven't watered enough. So this year, I'm working on it and my tomatoes so far are coming along well. Strawberries too. Just about the entire garden is in pots, apart from my built-up vegetable bed.</p><p></p><p>I didn't get to buy any herb plants today, so if I get a chance I'm going to plant some seed in the morning.</p><p></p><p>Oh, one more tip - coffee grounds to knock out slugs and snails. They always take out my woody herbs especially, and this year the coffee grounds seem to be doing a great job, even better than snail bait. Only a sprinkle of coffee grounds, not too much.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 205111, member: 1991"] I did know about using walnuts instead, for pesto - but they have a bitter undertaste and I'm the only one in our family who can tolerate the bitterness. Everyone else is extremely sensitive to bitter tastes in anything. Growing basil - I found the biggest killer of basil plants was lack of water. I grow mine in pots, with an ice cream container as a saucer and water reservoir. I bought one over-planted pot from the nursery and used a big 4 litre plastic ice cream container to sit the pot plant in, I often had to fill it twice a day. The other thing you need to do, is keep pinching out the first signs of flower heads. Once you let it flower, it will set seed and die. But you can only postpone flowering for so long - once the stems begin to go woody, you may as well let it flower so you can harvest the seed to plant next year. One year I kept picking off the flower heads for too long and it never flowered, so I never got the seed. It just died off anyway. We have a warm wall which faces north (the equator side, for us). I had a basil plant along that wall that I kept going through winter and through the following summer. But I've found water is the big secret for my garden tis year - I'm careful to not overwater, but I suspect in the past I haven't watered enough. So this year, I'm working on it and my tomatoes so far are coming along well. Strawberries too. Just about the entire garden is in pots, apart from my built-up vegetable bed. I didn't get to buy any herb plants today, so if I get a chance I'm going to plant some seed in the morning. Oh, one more tip - coffee grounds to knock out slugs and snails. They always take out my woody herbs especially, and this year the coffee grounds seem to be doing a great job, even better than snail bait. Only a sprinkle of coffee grounds, not too much. Marg [/QUOTE]
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