Parsley, cilantro, and basil sown
April 4, 2026
herbs, parsley, cilantro, basil, planting log | permalink
I put one row of each of these in the front of the left bed, just in front of the two rows of beets I planted last week. First parsley, then cilantro, then basil. These rows were a bit closer than the rest of the bed - maybe 8" apart instead of 10 to 12. The parsley and cilantro were spaced two inches between each seed, while I did the basil every inch. Hopefully the heights work out as planned, with the basil somewhat shading the parsley and cilantro but with neither of those latter two shading the beets. However, thinking of it afterward, I shouldn't have put the basil in there but rather another row of cilantro probably, since the wildlife seem to mostly leave the basil alone aside from the infrequent nibble. (More than nibbling is the reason I'm moving the cilantro and parsley from the unprotected herb garden to the fenced-in vegetable garden this year.) There were only about a dozen basil seeds left in the packet, so I threw them in the garlic bed, along with a few cilantro for the hell of it. The cilantro seeds were those I'd saved from the herb garden in 2024, the basil I'd saved and packaged on Oct 3, 2025, and the parsley from a store-bought package from 2024.
Tomatoes, basils, and cauliflowers started
March 9, 2026
vegetables, tomatoes, herbs, cauliflower | permalink
In the basement, now under grow lights, I started the following seeds, in order from left to right by six-pack:
- 6 basil, collected from ones I grew last year
- 6 more basil, also from ones I grew
- 6 cherry/grape indeterminate, noted to be from a spouse favorite after a taste test, from a descendant of the original 2024 volunteer and packaged on Sept 8, 2025
- 6 cherry/grape indeterminate tomato seeds from the original 2024 volunteer
- 6 round bush heirlooms from March 31, 2025, from one of the store-bought tomatoes I used last year
- 6 round bush heirlooms from ones I grew, packaged on Sept 30, 2025. On the package I noted "Very good plant, seems to not get too big/little to no blight"
- about 20 cauliflower, bought from store, in a burlap roll, inspired by GrowVeg
Aside from maybe planting more of these if they don't all come up, I don't intend to start anything else inside.
Updates:
- March 14: 5 cauliflower seedlings are already up and about 3/4" tall.
- March 15, 4pm: 9 cauliflower seedlings now up
- March 16, noon:
- 10 cauliflower
- 1 basil
- 1 tomato (indeterminate, from Sept 8 2025)
- 5 tomato (indeterminate, from original 2024 volunteer)
- 3 tomato (bush, from Sept 30 2025)
- March 17, 10pm:
- 10 cauliflower
- 4 basil
- 5 tomato (indeterminate, from Sept 8 2025)
- 6 tomato (indeterminate, from original 2024 volunteer)
- 4 tomato (bush, from March 31 2025)
- 6 tomato (bush, from Sept 30 2025)
- March 18, 9pm:
- 12 cauliflower
- 4 basil
- 6 tomato (indeterminate, from Sept 8 2025)
- 6 tomato (indeterminate, from original 2024 volunteer)
- 4 tomato (bush, from March 31 2025)
- 6 tomato (bush, from Sept 30 2025)
- March 20, 9pm: 1 more basil
- March 23: 1 more basil
- March 25: 1 more basil (now 7)
- March 27:
- potted up all the tomatoes (with an extra from the original volunteer, since I apparently dropped two seeds in one cell)
- a couple of the bush tomatoes are starting to develop true leaves
- one of the cherries/grapes has a set of three initial leaves instead of two - haven't seen that before (in my limited experience). I noticed this a week or so ago but kept forgetting to note it.
- planted five basil seeds in the cells where the first ones didn't come up
- Apr 3: a cauliflower seedling has come up in one of the tomato pots
- Apr 8: I think it's broccoli, not cauliflower that came up in the tomato. Now there are four of them. And another tomato.
- Apr 12: potted up the round bush heirlooms from the Sept 30, 2025 seeds into bigger pots. I topped up the soil on all the other tomatoes.
- Apr 13: potted up the cauliflower. Lost one somewhere along the way so now there's 11.
Herb garden in 2023 and 2024
December 14, 2024
I was planning on writing this post about 2024 only, but it turns out I didn't write anything about 2023 yet, so I'm going to cover both years. It took a bit of digging through old photos and unfortunately I only found a couple for 2023. Many more for this year though. Next year I'll try to be a bit more organized to make a year-end review a bit easier.
2023In spring 2023, I desodded a small bit of the lawn next to our back patio for the herb garden. I planted the back quarter of it with basil, marjoram (a subspecies of oregano), thyme, and rosemary. All but the basil I bought from a local garden center. The basil was just from buying fresh at the store and then rooting. I kept adding more basil for a couple months, so it was a bit fuller by mid-summer.
In July, I had harvested and dried some thyme, basil, and rosemary. I also did so again in October, and this time was also able to get some marjoram:
This year, I planted the whole space. In all, it's somewhere around 15 square feet.
The rosemary, marjoram, and thyme that I'd planted last year all survived the winter and spread a little. The rosemary probably grew the most - taller and bushier with a little bit of pruning. The marjoram probably tripled the ground it covered and then in mid-June sent a lot of stalks up into the air, most of which I allowed to flower and go to seed. I wish thyme was faster growing than it is - next to basil that's probably the herb I used the most, at least among those I grow. So I split it and planted half of it at the front corner. I'll probably split it again next year so there's more of it. I harvested and dried all three of those. I now have more rosemary than I know what to do with, a bit of marjoram, and, sadly, no more thyme.
Parsley, cilantro, and lavender were new additions this year. I also attempted to plant some sunflowers on the edges of it, but, though they ignored them for a while, the deer eventually ate them. I also threw in a cucumber among the basil, because I had grown it from a seed but didn't have space for it in the vegetable garden at the time. After a couple things didn't survive in the vegetable garden, I moved it there.
The basil, Italian Genovese grown from seed, was the great success of the year. I aggressively pruned the plants and by the end they were nice and bushy and about 20 inches tall. Anytime I needed fresh basil it was available. I gave some to my neighbor. I also dried a bunch and made two batches of pesto. The second batch was big, and in addition to the couple of meals it provided a sauce for at the time, I think there's probably enough in the freezer for three or four more. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it has fared. About a month ago it got hit by frost. Half of the 15 or so plants turned completely brown, while the rest lost most of their leaves but stayed green for another week or so. Just before spring I'll cut them off at their base and chop them up into the compost.
The cilantro was the first thing to go, long before frost. Although I got a few handfuls from it, it didn't do that well. But I let a few go to seed, which I'll use for next year.
Surprisingly, the parsley is still alive and doing well. It did not start off well - something was eating it when it first started coming up, but then let it go. With how delicate the leaves are, I figured it would have been the first thing to succumb to frost, but despite several periods of below freezing temperatures for multiple days, it's still there. Which reminds me - I should grab some before it's gone. Like the cilantro, I got a few handfuls from it over the summer and fall.
More rosemary dried and stored
October 6, 2024
No pics on this one, but I trimmed the top of about 25 stems of the rosemary plant, which soon will graduate to rosemary bush. I then trimmed off the leaves from the stems, and baked in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes and then (because it didn't seem like 180 was doing the trick) at 210 for another 20. Got nearly a full spice jar. I still have a bunch leftover from last year. I'm going to need to find more uses for rosemary.
I then took all the stems and put them in the ground in various places around the yard. Not expecting much - if one survives I'll be happy. Mostly I just like the way it looks.
More basil dried and stored
October 6, 2024
I harvested a bunch of basil yesteday and dried it in the dehydrator borrowed from MH for something like 4 hours. Early this morning - since the kiddo woke up briefly and I wasn't able to fall back asleep - I crushed it up and funneled it into a jar. I didn't measure it, but I'd guess it was 4 cups fresh, which reduced to about 3/4 of a cup dried. I also did this last month, with a slightly smaller amount (because I ruined half of it by trying to air fry it in the oven), and also have some from earlier in the year and from last year, so we're all set on dried basil for some time. Still, if the plants go to seed (not sure they will flower this late in the year), I'm going to save them for next year, for either fresh basil, pesto, or drying and giving away. The variety is Italian Genovese.
