tiny basil

Since the those pesky squirrels dug up my last attempt at planting basil, I went small-scale this time.

tiny basil

If you put potting soil in pressed paper egg cartons (bottom half), scatter some seeds, and water them daily, with enough sun, they'll spout sweet, tiny basil plants.  Every time I pass those $5 live basil plants at the grocery store, I do look longingly, dreaming of the instant gratification fresh pesto would bring.  But I resist.  Once these little guys get going, we'll have more basil we know what to do with.

That is, if I can continue to keep the squirrels away.

container "gardening"

Continuing with the spring theme, I thought I'd share a pic of our sprouting greens!  Thanks to some inspiration from B's Aunt Krafty, I planted some butter lettuce, chard, and arugula.  Basically, you just fill a large container (that has drainage... i.e. holes in the bottom) with good dirt/potting soil, sprinkle some seeds in, and water every day.  Lettuce is thirsty.

Just a few hours after I took this picture, squirrels decided to bury their nuts in my little garden.  They rummaged through the whole thing digging up almost all the tiny lettuces.  I refrained from getting out the BB gun and instead topped the metal container with the mesh lid to our fire pit.  

Voila.  

Squirrel proof deterrent.  

I'm looking forward to having a full grown salad bowl in a few weeks.  So lay off, squirrels.

{garden markers from Hammerman on etsy}

If we can manage to keep 'em away, we're going to plant herbs again too.  Basil is my favorite to have on hand in the summer, but we'll do sage, cilantro, and parsley too. In my dream garden, I'd have giant, painted planters (a la Nan-Z) with these happy markers in them, just in case anyone forgot which was which.

Happy gardening!

PS:  isn't Hammerman's tablecloth/backdrop great?  such pretty colors.